While Chevrolet’s Mat Jackson bagged pole position for the first of tomorrow’s British Touring Car Championship triple-header at Silverstone, Fifer Gordon Shedden was coming to terms with the news his Clyde Valley Racing team had quit the series.
Just a fortnight after 30-year-old Shedden had given Glasgow-based CVR its best result of the season, when he finished second at Knockhill in his Seat Leon, a fall-out between the team and title sponsor Cartridge World means he will watch today’s action on TV.
“It’s a massive disappointment,” Shedden said from his Dalgety Bay home today. “I had no clue this was coming. I got a phone call late on Wednesday night telling me there was a problem.
“Since then I’ve been doing everything I could to get someone else to prepare my car in time for this weekend, but sadly I ran out of time.
“To be honest, I don’t know what’s happening and I’m not going to get involved. The lawyers are handling it. The positive thing is I’m already talking with various parties trying to put together a package which will get me racing at the next round at Rockingham.
“I proved at Knockhill that I’m still capable of mixing it with the best touring far drivers in Britain and I want to get back into the action as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile at Silverstone, Jackson clocked a best time of 1min 00.259secs — a new qualifying record — in his Chevrolet to pip the BMW of Rob Collard by 0.233s, with former champ Jason Plato fourth in the other Chevy.
Championship leader Colin Turkington, nine points ahead of Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi, lines up fifth in his RAC BMW, three places ahead of the Italian in eighth. Between them are the BMWs of Stephen Jelley and Kirkcaldy’s Jonathan Adam.
Scots veteran Anthony Reid, qualified 10th on his return. The 52-year-old from Glasgow, partnering Turkington in another BMW and racing in BTCC for the first time since 2004, was just 0.761s off pole and 0.151s off Giovanardi’s time.
And Aberdeen 19-year-old Glynn Geddie took another significant step towards winning his class in the Porsche Carrera Cup when he qualified fastest Pro-Am1 contender, and fifth overall at Silverstone.
The youngster, in only his first full season racing, clocked 57.187s, 0.243s and five places faster than his closest rival Robert Lawson. Geddie leads Lawson by 12 points with six races remaining.
JM