Rockingham nightmare for Sheddenposted in BTCC07 | 09 | 2014
FIFER GORDON SHEDDEN (pictured) saw his hopes of winning this year's British Touring Car Championship all but disappear in a cruel and miserable weekend at Rockingham as he became the innocent victim of contact.
Entering the Northamptonshire triple-header just 23 points behind the BMW of series leader Colin Turkington, Shedden started the first race from fourth position on the 31-car grid.
Pushing for third early in the race, he slipped to sixth after contact with the MG of double champ Jason Plato. The impact also damaged the steering on Shedden's Honda Civic Tourer, and the 2012 champ eventually finished eighth.
But whole Shedden again finished eighth in the day's second race, disaster was looking in race three.
“It all got a bit tight on the first lap of race three, and it was the usual situation where nobody is willing to give an inch," the 35-year-old from Dalgety Bay explained.
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"One driver came across the front of me and spun on to the grass, rejoining just in time to collect me again; someone else was then unsighted and hit me on the other side, which broke my steering and that was game over, unfortunately. Simply wrong place, wrong time.”
It was the first time in the season's opening 24 races that the Fifer had failed to score a championship point, such has been his consistency.
And with former Knockhill race instructor Turkington winning the two opening races, and finishing fourth in the day's finale, — a race won by the Audi of Rob Austin — the 32-year-old from Portadown now holds comfortable 55-point lead over second-placed Plato, with Shedden trailing a further nine points behind.
"It's definitely not the weekend I had planned," a disappointed Shedden admitted. "All I can do now is head to the final two rounds at Silverstone and Brands Hatch and do everything I can to score as many points as possible, and hope Lady Luck smiles on me."
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Jim McGill