Shedden and Newsham shineposted in BTCC12 | 08 | 2012
SCOTS TINTOP RACERS Gordon Shedden and Dave Newsham head to the next round of the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill in 10 days in top form.
Shedden, the 33-year-old from Dalgety Bay, leads the championship by eight points after the latest triple-header at Snetterton (see 'Update' at foot of this article).
And Newsham, the 44-year-old from Inverness, bagged the first BTCC win of his career after dominating today's final race in his Vauxhall.
"It's just awesome," Newsham beamed. "We've had pace all weekend, and to finally win our first race in the BTCC is just fantastic.
"A little team like us, and we go out and do that. It's brilliant. After the way the day started; to finish like that was just awesome.
"I can't thank my sponsors, and the team enough.
"I think we've had pace all weekend. We should have been third in the first race, but then we had a bit of a mishap with the fuel calculation, and got put to the back.
"But it just shows we have the pace.
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"We identified some faults with the car after Croft: but now the car's the car I fell in love with at the start of the year. It's back, and I love driving it.
"I wanted a bigger gap, just in case the tyres went off the side of a cliff, but I was managing the tyres throughout the race, and they didn't seem to be catching me. I can't believe it.
"The guys in the team were telling me to look after the tyres, stay off the kerbs, and just stroke it home. And that's what we did. Awesome."
Shedden, meanwhile, finished third in the day's closing race to cap a major turnaround of fortunes over the weekend.
On Saturday morning, the Scot's Honda Racing Civic was severely damaged after flames gutted the car following a fuel leak.
His crew rebuilt the car, and though he started the first of yesterday's three races from 22nd and last on the grid, he battled through to finish seventh, behind the MG of race winner Jason Plato.
In race two, Shedden again displayed his championship credentials by finishing second behind the Civic of Andrew Jordan.
"That's been some weekend," Shedden, who will be favourite to win again on his home circuit near Dunfermline next time out, admitted.
"At one stage on Saturday I didn't think I'd be racing this weekend, so badly was the car damaged.
"So to leave with two podium finishes, and leading the championship heading to Knockhill in a fortnight, is pretty well perfect."
UPDATE: Shedden was subsequently excluded fron third place in the day's final race after his Honda was found to have 'overboosted' during the third race of the day. The Scot's team-mate Matt Neal now leads the championship heading to Knockhill, with Shedden in second place.
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Jim McGill