Ton-up Gordon Shedden has headed into the British Touring Car Championship summer holiday back in charge of the 2015 title chase.
Fifer ‘Flash’ broke the domination of the rear-wheel drive BMWs in the third race at Croft to notch up his milestone century of BTCC podiums and stretch his drivers’ championship lead to 10 points over a tightly-packed five strong chasing group led by series stalwart Jason Plato.
But despite the BTCC taking a six-week sabbatical before the next round at Snetterton in early August it was back to business at his Knockhill desk yesterday for the Honda Yuasa Racing driver as the Fife track prepares for one of its biggest weekends of the year with the visit of the MCE British Superbike Championship this weekend.
Shedden had bagged a fourth place in Sunday’s opening race before he was involved in the day’s top action at the front of the pack for the final race.
He captured an early lead with an audacious pass on Rob Collard but had to settle for third after Croft’s demanding nature took its toll on his Honda Civic Type R’s soft tyres.
Shedden said: “I’m delighted, it’s so competitive that you are not going to win everywhere, but points make prizes and we scored three very solid results on what we knew was going to be a tough weekend around a predominantly rear-wheel-drive circuit.”
Meanwhile Letham teenager Sandy Mitchell was also on familiar terms with the Croft presentation platform with three rookie cup podiums in the MSA Formula support series.
The Arden Motorsport 15-year-old, ran strongly inside the top 10 all weekend and a trio of eighth overall finishes keeps the Dundee High School youngster sixth overall in the single-seater championship standings and a point off second in the rookie title tussle.
Mitchell has already been a double race winner at Thruxton in the new Ford Eco-Boost powered series which allows 15-year-olds to race in a certified UK championship for the first time and the Angus lad is one of the youngest in the international field.