Having been amongst the quickest petrol cars in recent events, Gordon Shedden and Tom Chilton endured a difficult weekend at Silvestone as the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship returned to the Northamptonshire venue for the penultimate round of the season.
Shedden endured a difficult qualifying session which meant he started down in 15th place on the grid but looked well set to score points in the opening race having climbed to seventh, before contact from Mike Jordan saw him slip down outside the top ten to eventually finish 13th.
Having avoided a spinning
Mat Jackson in race two, Shedden was able to finish race two in eighth place but despite taking the lead at the start of race three, he was unable to match the pace of the leaders and dropped down to eleventh – losing the final points finishing position in the closing stages to Stephen Jelley.
"It was a disastrous weekend, the worst so far by a long way," the Scot reflected. "We had some problems throughout the weekend and it's baffling, it's difficult to know what to say. We struggled for pace and have been slow down the straights, it's been clear to see. The guys have been heroes changing engines and doing other things but nothing seemed to work. I started 15th and made a good start to wind myself through the grid in race one but Mike Jordan got ambitious into Becketts and had me off; these things happen. Race two I was struggling on and race three was race three – there isn't much to say about it.
"We need to get our heads togther and come up with a solution. There is a lot still at stake in the final rounds at
Brands Hatch and the car has been good round there in the past. It needs to be good again this time so we have to come up with something to make it happen."
Chilton meanwhile had started race one from inside the top ten but lost places at the start and was quickly shuffled outside the points as he struggled in the wet conditions with a dry set-up and a windscreen that was misting up more and more as the race wore on.
