Shedden impresses in BTCC testposted in BTCC18 | 03 | 2014
FIFER GORDON SHEDDEN was second-fastest in the only official pre-season test ahead of the opening round of the British Touring Car Championship on March 30 at Brands Hatch.
But the 33-year-old from Dalgety Bay, debuting his Honda Civic Tourer at Donington, was only denied the top slot by 0.001s by defending champ Andrew Jordan (pictured).
"I've got to be happy with that," 2012 champ Shedden, whose Honda team-mate, triple BTCC champ Matt Neal, was sixth-fastest, said.
"You need things to go your way, and with 31 cars on the grid you never know what’s going to happen this year. All I hope is that come race 30 at Brands GP in October, I'm in with a cracking chance of winning the title back.
"I know what an amazing feeling it was to win it in 2012 – I know it’s going to be harder than ever, but without a shadow of a doubt I’m going for it this year.
"We’ve had a lot to do with the car. There have been a lot of new challenges, but from an engineering point of view it was important to push the boundaries.
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"I’m sure we’ll be in the mix, we’ve just got to keep working. This year we’ve got 31 cars on the same tyres, with a lot of levellers to keep things close.
"Seven champions and a whole host of other race-winners means this is going to be one hell of a season.”
With returning double-champion Alain Menu third-fastest in a time of 1min 11.226secs, Adam Morgan’s brand new WIX Racing Mercedes-Benz A Class impressed on its first official outing in the BTCC.
The Lancastrian put in the fourth quickest time ahead of the newly-liveried MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save MG6 of Sam Tordoff, with Neal sixth.
Former Knockhill race instructor Colin Turkington headed up the eBay Motors trio of drivers in eighth, three-tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Rob Collard, with BTCC rookie Tom Ingram taking tenth for Speedworks Motorsport.
Jordan meanwhile, who clinched last year's title in the final round, admitted to being frustrated by the changing weather conditions.
"There's no denying it was a little bit frustrating," he sighed. "We were about to put a new set of tyres on when it started to rain.
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"It’s always nice to end up quickest, but it wasn’t really a proper day because of the weather, and we had quite a lot to try out that we haven’t been able to do.
"It means we’ve still got some unanswered questions going to Brands Hatch, but we know we’ve just got to get on with it.
"The car felt fabulous in the wet, so it was a case of trying a few things and then parking it up. If that had been free practice or qualifying I’d have been very happy with the car.
"I’m proud to have the number one on my car and I’m looking forward to the excitement starting in a couple of weeks."
Rounding up the performance of the other three Scots in the BTCC: Inverness-based Dave Newsham was 14th-fastest in his AmD Ford, two places ahead of Aberdeen's Glynn Geddie's United Toyota. The top 16 were covered by less than 2s.
Dalkeith's Aiden Moffat was 23rd in his Chevrolet, 8.8secs off Jordan's best time.
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Jim McGill