Shedden starts third at Thruxtonposted in BTCC03 | 05 | 2014
FIFER GORDON SHEDDEN will start the first race of tomorrow's British Touring Car Championship triple-header at Thruxton from third on the 30-car grid.
The 35-year-old from Dalgety Bay — who won dramatically at Donington a fortnight ago — entered the weekend just one point behind joint championship leaders, Andrew Jordan (Honda) and Jason Plato (MG).
"I've got to be happy with that performance," 2012 champ Shedden, whose fastest time of 1min 16.488secs, in his Honda Civic Tourer round the 2.35-mile Hampshire circuit, was just 0.296secs off the pole time set by Jordan, said today.
"We know this is the highest quality BTCC grid for years, and realistically any of the top 12 guys on the grid can win the opening race.
"Thruxton's the fastest circuit of the season, and anything can happen here. We've delivered the goods here before, and I'm confident we can do it again. But it'll be tough."
Jordan's polesitting time of 1:16.192secs — it's the third year in succession Jordan has started from the No1 slot at Thruxton — shattered the previous qualifying lap record. It also nudged him just 0.172s ahead of Shedden's team-mate, triple champ Matt Neal, as Honda locked-out the top three positions.
While former champ Plato had to content himself with sixth on the grid, the Scots trio of Dave Newsham, Glynn Geddie and Aiden Moffat line up 18th, 19th and 27th respectively.
Related: Shedden targets more BTCC wins
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Jim McGill