Fifer Shedden takes BTCC poleposted in BTCC30 | 04 | 2011

FIFER GORDON SHEDDEN continued his blistering start to the British Touring Car Championship by clinching pole position for tomorrow's opening race at Thruxton. It's Honda's third successive pole of the year.

The 31-year-old from Dalgety Bay lapped the 2.35-mile Hampshire track in 1min 17.004secs to edge out the Vauxhall of Andrew Jordan by 0.062s. Shedden's Honda team-mate and former champ Matt Neal was third, 0.213s behind the Scot.

"This is a major statement by the team," Shedden, who had feared the reduction in turbo-boost — enforced on his Honda Civic this week by BTCC organisers — would handicap his performance, said today.

"We've had the fastest car on the grid right through the opening three meetings of the season, and to do it again with the reduction in turbo-boost just shows how good the car, and the team is.

"Hopefully now we can turn this pole position into a flag-to-flag win in the opening race tomorrow, then go out and do exactly the same in the second race."

Behind the leading three, current championship leader James Nash could only manage 10th in his Vauxhall, while defending champ Jason Plato starts fifth in his Chevrolet.

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Jim McGill