Team Halfords celebrated its second win of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season after Gordon Shedden took victory in the final race at Oulton Park.
Shedden, aka Flash, finished in the top ten in both race one and two, and lived up to his name in the final race of the weekend as he won at the Cheshire circuit for the third year in a row.
Team-mate Tom Chilton, aka Sonic, started well with a fine second place podium finish in the opening race of the weekend, and went on to suffer disappointment in both race two and three which meant he was unable to add to his points tally.
Gordon lies seventh in the points standings after the weekend with Tom in tenth place, while Team Halfords’ has strengthened third place in the teams’ championship.
Race one:
From third on the grid, Tom made a fine start to split the turbo-diesel SEATs but then came under intense pressure from Darren Turner through the opening laps. Despite the straight-line speed of the diesel, Tom was able to defend his position before Turner made a move for position on lap four. Running side-by-side down Cascades, contact between the two saw Turner run wide and from that point on, Tom was never challenged as he took a fine second place behind Jason Plato.
Gordon held his sixth place at the start and climbed up to fifth when Turner ran wide on lap four. Gordon held the position until he was forced wide by Colin Turkington at Old Hall on lap eight and slipped back to seventh place. That was the position he held to the finish despite an incident on lap twelve when he was involved in contact with Mike Jordan on the run across the start-finish straight.
Race two:
Tom lost a place at the start of race two to the fast starting BMW of Colin Turkington and found himself running in fourth place after the opening laps. He then became involved in a heated battle with the BMW of Steven Kane for position with Tom producing a fine defensive display to hold the place until Kane finally managed to find a way past at Lodge on lap seven. Unfortunately, Tom was forced wide at Hislops on lap ten while fighting with Adam Jones and slipped outside the top ten, eventually taking the flag in eleventh place.
Starting right in the pack, Gordon found himself involved in a number of heated battles in the midfield and lost time when he was forced wide out of Hislops and took a trip across the grass. That dropped him down to tenth place, but the rapid Scot showed his pace to climb back up to eighth place and secure a position on the front row for race three when the reverse grid draw took place.
Race three:
Tom saw his final race come to an early end when he was forced to retire on the opening lap after he got forced onto the grass onto the run into Hislops and could do little to avoid colliding with the BMW of Steven Kane, putting the Honda out on the spot.
That led to a Safety Car period with Gordon holding second place behind Andrew Jordan, and when racing resumed, Flash made light work of taking the lead from the BTCC rookie as he swept past at Old Hall on lap five.
From there, the Scot was never troubled as he secured his second win of the season.
Team Comments:
Gordon Shedden:
“It’s an amazing result to get the win. We had struggled a bit in the first two races but we worked hard to improve the car and it was amazing in the final race - it was a different animal. All credit to the guys at Team Halfords and to my engineer Eddie who came up with a masterplan for the third race which worked. For much of the day I thought it was going to be another one full of bad luck, so to finish on a win is awesome. I made a good move on Andrew Jordan near the start and could control it from the front, so to go away from here with a win ahead of my home round at Knockhill is a huge boost for the whole team.”
Olly Collins - team manager:
“It’s a good boost for the team as its far too long since Rockingham. We have had a cracking car all year but have had more than our fair share of bad luck since that first win which means we haven’t been able to turn our pace into race victories. We managed to change that today and hopefully we have now turned a corner and can get our luck back. We are a tiny team compared to the manufacturers but the guys do a great job and this win is a huge boost for them.”
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