Shedden starts on BTCC front rowposted in BTCC16 | 04 | 2011

FIFER GORDON SHEDDEN will line up alongside his Honda team-mate Matt Neal on the front row of the grid for tomorrow's opening race in the British Touring Car Championship triple-header at Donington.

The two Honda Civics dominated qualifying with the former champ clocking 1min 10.129secs to edge 31-year-old Shedden off pole by just 0.043s. Vauxhall's James Nash starts third, with the Chevrolet of defending champ and current BTCC leader only eighth. It was Neal's second pole of the season.

"I think we showed that we're going to be the car and the team to beat this year," Dalgety Bay's Shedden said. "I made a minor mistake on my fastest lap and that was enough for Matt to nip ahead of me.

"The other thing, of course, people have to remember is I'm running with 18kg of success ballast while Matt only has 9kg; that makes a big difference.

"But while we're both very close, the gap to third was another three-tenths, which is big. I think if we both get off the line clean, hopefully we can deliver at least a couple of 1-2 finishes for Honda."

Inverness-based Dave Newsham, in his first season in BTCC, qualified 19th of the 23 cars in his BMW.

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news by following us on twitter.com/scotcars

Jim McGill