Shedden back in control of BTCC title race

Defending British Touring Car champion Gordon Shedden has emerged from the Oulton Park weekend in the lead of the 2017 title race, but is wary of an 'unspectacular start to Croft'.

The Honda Civic Type-R driver entered the fourth weekend of 2017 17-points adrift of previous leader Tom Ingram but has instead emerged from Oulton Park with a 16-point lead over Team BMW's Rob Collard.

Shedden expected Oulton Park to be 'one of the toughest weekends' of 2017 for Honda but the reigning triple champion picked up a strong haul of points as well as taking his second win of the year in race three.

The Team Dynamics driver pounced on Andrew Jordan immediately after the late safety car in the final race to take the win away from his BMW rival, even if the former was caught by surprise whilst making the move.

"It was a little mediocre through race one and two. I was driving my heart out and the car was feeling good but without spectacular result of a podium. But points make prizes. So I was grinding out the results in the first two," said Shedden.

"I wasn't really sure what to expect. The BMWs have been lightning round here all day, as well as the Subarus. Andrew [Jordan] just lost the balance out of the car after in the safety car.

"The race just came to us. I had no intention of passing him at Cascades on that lap. He just jumped on the brakes so early! I just had to send it somewhere just to avoid clattering straight in the rear."

Whilst his race winning move on Jordan was a relatively straight-forward affair, Shedden's earlier overtake on Josh Cook for second position caused the latter to retire from the race with suspension damage.

The contact between the pair broke Cook's rear-right suspension and Shedden was given a verbal warning over the incident.

Speaking after the race, Shedden described the incident: "It was a genuine move. Once you're committed on the brakes, you can't get out of the way."

The series reconvenes for the fifth event of the season at Croft in just under three-weeks' time, where Shedden will once again defend his lead with 75 kilos of ballast on board.

"With it [the 16-point lead] comes 75 kilos of ballast at Croft again! We have to prepare again for another unspectacular start at Croft," he continued.

"A little bit of weight does seem to chill the car out a bit. I guess that's one of the things you've got to deal with. It's not spectacular but you've got to try and get as near as you can."