Shedden hit by quali penaltyposted in BTCC05 | 09 | 2015
FIFER GORDON SHEDDEN lost his third place on the grid for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Rockingham. The 36-year-old from Dalgety Bay was deemed to have committed a pitlane misdemeanour in qualifying.
The Scot had initially put his Honda Type-R third on the grid after a last-lap flier, but was subsequently handed a four-place grid penalty. As a result he will instead start seventh.
After the qualifying session had been red flagged, the cars retook to the track for a five-minute shoot-out for pole.
According to championship regulations, cars must join the track in pitbay order: Shedden did not do at the resumption of the session.
Related: Shedden boosts BTCC title hopes
"One of our competitors highlighted a procedural error on the behalf of our team in the pit lane at the last stoppage, and unfortunately the penalty that goes with that is four places," Shedden said afterwards.
"The error broke a regulation that governs how the cars should leave the pit lane.
"We've got to race to the rules, and it would appear that we've broken the rule and we've been punished — it is what it is and there's nothing I can do to change it."
Frustratingly, Shedden's demotion puts him two places behind championship leader Jason Plato, who the Scot trails by nine points in the standings, on the grid.
While Jack Goff moves to third and Tom Ingram eases up to a career-best qualifying result of fourth, Plato moves up to fifth. Shedden's Honda team-mate Matt Neal will join the Team BMR Volkswagen CC on row two.
Related: Concours cars hit Highlands
Keep up-to-date with all the latest news by following us on twitter.com/Scotcars
Jim McGill