GORDON SHEDDEN believes that his Honda Civic Tourer can shine at Rockingham this weekend and drive him into British Touring Car Championship contention.

The Dalgety Bay race ace admitted to enduring a difficult weekend last time out at Knockhill as disappointments in races two and three saw him fail to close the gap on standings leader Colin Turkington with three rounds of the championship left.

But the 35-year-old, who won the title in 2012, remains just 23 points off the pace in second place with nine races to go and told Press Sport his car is ready to take advantage of what he described as a “unique” circuit in Northamptonshire and pile the pressure on Turkington.

He said, “The Tourer should do ok on this track. It was originally built for Indy Car racing and has got good variation. It has a few high-speed corners which should suit the car’s aerodynamics and other characteristics that will suit it. It is a unique circuit; it has a large oval bank that we use and is the only one that we visit that is anti-clockwise, which is different for us. It doesn’t have the same history or heritage of some of the tracks that we go to but there has been some great races there and we have got some good results in the past.

“I need to keep the pressure on and hopefully I’ll be able to score a lot of points this weekend. It is all to play for – there is nearly a third of the championship left to go and you saw how quickly things can change at Knockhill. But you just never know and I’ll still be pushing to the end.” While he was pleased with the spectacle at Knockhill – which celebrated its 40th anniversary – last month, it was a frustrating round for the home favourite as he finished 12th and sixth in the final two races following a third-place finish in the opener.

But he continued, “It was a fantastic event, from the parade on the Forth Road Bridge with the media interest to the race itself but it didn’t work out for me on a personal level. This weekend will be a little bit of a change from that but there are a lot of Scottish people living in Corby and other parts of Northamptonshire so maybe I’ll have some support!

“We’re still in touch and we’ll keep going. Winning the championship is still in sight and hopefully I can have a bit better luck this weekend.” Round eight of the BTCC at Rockingham begins with qualifying on Saturday, with racing taking place on Sunday.