The Scot and his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R won a cat-and-mouse duel with the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N of Ingram, the margin just 0.197 seconds at the finish.
Shedden, who had three more laps of hybrid usage than Ingram, ran third in the early stages, after Colin Turkington stalled his front-row starting West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport when the lights went out.
George Gamble had used the rear-wheel drive of his Ciceley Motorsport BMW to burst through from sixth on the grid and round Shedden at Redgate to move into second place.
Shedden got back past BTCC debutant Gamble into Redgate on the third lap, and immediately started slashing the advantage of Ingram, who had moved just over a second in front.
Shedden got very close to Ingram into the Old Hairpin on the 10th lap of 16; the Hyundai squirrelled on the kerbs, and the Honda was able to drive around the outside at Schwantz Curve to take the lead.
But Ingram seemed to have hybrid usage in hand at the end of the race that Shedden didn’t, despite having three laps fewer over the distance – he kept the veteran under pressure, but Shedden just held on. It transpired that the Honda’s dash wasn’t updating its laps of hybrid usage until halfway around the lap, “so I opted not to use it”.
“There’s some great racing and the car’s mega at the minute, so I’m really happy,” said Shedden.
“This is the first experience of the different levels of hybrid available – I’m managing what I’m doing but I don’t know what he’s doing.
“But I did enough – you’ve only got to beat him by an inch, haven’t you?”
Gordon Shedden, Halfords Racing with Cataclean Honda Civic Type R
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Gamble and Adam Morgan hung on in their Ciceley BMWs to make it a leading quartet, only to fall away slightly in the closing laps before Gamble claimed his first BTCC podium finish.
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