Shedden rediscovers his old dynamics for double success

Gordon Shedden was on a roll. The return of Team Dynamics’ Scottish Prodigal McSon to the Midlands squad after three seasons away from the British Touring Car Championship was one of the stories of the winter. Then he convincingly topped the series’ media day test at Silverstone. One week before the opening BTCC round, he drove the anchor stint to victory in a one-make Ford GT40 enduro at Donington Park. And then…

Few would have predicted that ‘Flash’ would fail to pick up a win in the Dynamics Honda Civic Type R until he was back at Donington, this time for the mid-October BTCC round. Then another followed, his 50th in the BTCC, but only after a one-second penalty was applied to spectacular 11th-to-first on-the-road victor Tom Ingram. Yes, there was incident-related controversy and disagreement, not for the first time this season where Shedden is concerned. Yes, he has made mistakes, notably in qualifying for the August Thruxton round. But there have also been errors from the Dynamics side, such as the exclusion that cost him pole at Snetterton. And the fearsome speed that has made the three-time champion a titan of the NGTC era has seldom been too far away.

Shedden’s Ingram spat was one small part of the other main story of the Donington weekend: how the main title contenders were getting on. At this, the penultimate round, 12 arrived with a mathematical shot at glory, and this was gradually whittled down to four. Of