Shedden triumphs in finale for first series win since 2022

Three-time British Touring Car Championship title winner Gordon Shedden won a thriller of a final race at Oulton Park.

Shedden’s Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport sat on pole position on the reversed grid, and was one of the few leading contenders to have a set of soft-compound Goodyear tyres available.

But heavy rain shortly before the start meant everybody went to the grid on wet-weather rubber, appearing to have nullified Shedden’s advantage.

But in his comeback season after a two-year layoff from the BTCC, Shedden showed that all the old fire is still there by instantly opening a 1.5-second lead over the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of reigning champion Jake Hill, who had made sharp progress from fifth on the grid.

Hill began to close the gap, and was challenging Shedden for the lead when the safety car emerged to retrieve the stranded Cupra of Max Hall from the Lodge Corner gravel trap.

Once the race got going again, Hill was again pressing Shedden when the safety car was called once again. A nudge from Tom Chilton at the Hislop’s chicane had sent Mikey Doble’s Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra into the barriers, while the bonnet of Chilton’s Hyundai popped up onto his windscreen, forcing him to the pits and retirement.

Once the race went green, there were five more laps of racing, with a leading quartet of Shedden, Hill, plus the two Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus STs of Ash Sutton and Dan Rowbottom.

Sutton appeared strong as the track dried, but was gifted second place in the end when Hill slewed sideways at Cascades and off the track during the penultimate lap.

Shedden had enough of a buffer to take his 53rd BTCC victory by 0.741 seconds over Sutton, while Rowbottom just about fended off the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai of Sutton’s title rival Tom Ingram.

Ingram had appeared down and out, slumping to ninth by the time of the second safety car, but as the track dried he was flying.

Another Excelr8 Hyundai was fifth in the hands of Senna Proctor from Dan Cammish (Alliance Ford) and the recovering Hill.

Completing the top 10 were James Dorlin (Speedworks Toyota), Charles Rainford from the back of the grid in his WSR BMW, and the Alliance Ford of Sam Osborne.

Dexter Patterson pitted for slicks under the second safety car and set a series of fastest laps, but ran out of time to catch the pack before the race went green so could only progress to 12th in his Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra Leon.

BTCC Oulton Park – Race 3 results