On-song Shedden in title driving seat after day to savour in Fife

The results mean the 32-year-old from Dalgety Bay heads to the next round at Rockhingham leading the title race by one point from his Honda Racing team-mate, double champ Matt Neal.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Shedden, who won the day’s second race after finishing on the podium in the opener, said. “It looks like this one’s going to go down to the wire.

“It certainly shows the strength of the Honda Civic. We’re leading the manufacturers’ championship, so that’s great for Honda, and now it looks as though Matt and I are going to be fighting it out for the drivers’ title. It’s going to be a hell of a fight to the end of the season.”

Shedden was left slightly frustrated after the day’s opening race when, despite having a faster car and hounding the rear bumper of Neal’s Honda throughout the 27 laps, he couldn’t find a way past. Polesitter Tom Chilton held off the two Hondas to take the win.

Roles though were reversed in the second race when, despite Chilton again starting from pole, the two Hondas were able to take advantage of a mistake by the Ford driver on lap 20 of the scheduled 27.

One lap later, Shedden completed a masterful overtaking manoeuvre on his team-mate. Carrying more speed through the chicane — the two right-hand wheels of his Civic pitched spectacularly 18 inches off the ground — the Scot eased himself ahead. “It was brilliant hearing the crowd roar,” a delighted Shedden added after claiming his fourth win of the season, the 19th of his BTCC career.

“It really felt as if though they were driving the race with me. It was unbelievable. To win at home, in Scotland, at Knockhill is just absolutely awesome. And it’s brilliant for Honda; a one-two which is absolutely superb.”

In the day’s final reverse grid race, Shedden started seventh, one place behind Neal. The two Hondas, though, fought their way through to finish fourth and fifth respectively behind the seat of race winner Tom Boardman.

“To be honest, there really wasn’t much more I could do from seventh and carrying 45kg of ‘success’ ballast,” Shedden said.

“Now, though, we turn our attention to the next round at Rockingham, and hopefully we can keep up this pace.”

It was a miserable weekend for Mat Jackson. The Ford driver entered the weekend leading Shedden by eight points in the title race, but he failed to finish any of the day’s three races.

Shedden wasn’t the only Scot to shine at Knockhill. Scotland’s leading sportscar team, St Cyrus-based Celtic Speed, took three wins in the Porsche Carrera Cup.

While Kirkcaldy 24-year-old Rory Butcher won the Porsche Pro-Am1 race, Edinburgh’s George Brewster won both Pro-Am2 races with team-mate Tommy Dreelan from Aberdeen taking a podium finish.

And Marino Franchitti, more used to racing in the States, finished third in the Ginetta Supercup. The Bathgate racer, brother of IndyCar champ Dario and cousin of F1 driver Paul di Resta, was competing at Knockhill for the first time in ten years.