SCOTTISH BTCC ACE SHEDDEN HOPING RIVALS WILL SLIP UP
Scotland’s Gordon Shedden says he will fight to the
end to win this year’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car
Championship crown – even if he requires a miracle at
his home track of Knockhill this Sunday (2 September) if he’s
to catch leaders Jason Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi.
Shedden lies third in the BTCC standings in his Team Halfords
Honda. But a bad run of luck early in the season has left
the Dalgety Bay racer trailing Plato by 78 points with only
104 on offer from the remaining rounds at Knockhill and Thruxton,
Hampshire in October.
The 28-year-old said: “I need Jason and Fabrizio to
go on holiday for a couple of months – either that,
or they don’t make it through passport control when
they arrive in Scotland.
“Only if they wipe out one another at Knockhill and
I have three mega results would I have a chance of going to
Thruxton still in with a chance of winning the title. But
I’m sure they’ll both drive cleverly enough to
make sure they finish every race.
“My circuit knowledge certainly doesn’t give
me any advantage. At this level the top drivers learn a circuit
within a few laps and in reality Jason has probably raced
more laps around Knockhill than I have. Fabrizio had never
seen the place before last year but still managed a race win.”
But Shedden says he has far from settled for third in the
final standings. He will still push to his maximum to achieve
the best results possible at the circuit where he grew up
watching racing cars.
If he was to become BTCC Champion – in what is only
his second season in the championship – he name would
join those such as former Scottish racing greats Jim Clark
and John Cleland to lift what is the most coveted trophy in
UK motor sport.
Shedden added: “I had a bad start to the season, but
since then, whenever I’ve finished races, the results
have always been top results. I want that to continue at Knockhill
and Thruxton and then let’s see where we end up. I suppose
right now I’ve nothing to lose and Jason and Fabrizio
clearly have.
“I’ll try to hold on for as long as is possible.
Anything can happen, as we all saw last weekend at Brands
Hatch. You just need to get tangled up in another driver’s
error and your weekend can suddenly nosedive. I can only gain
from any slip-up by those two.”
|
