Skip to content

Master class in touring car racing

Gordon Shedden coaches our reporter around Silverstone

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

William Esler gets a driver coaching session from Honda Yuasa Racing's Gordon Shedden at Silverstone ahead of the BTCC.

Everyone learns to drive at some point in their lives. My first licence letting me take a tractor onto the road just after my 16th birthday, followed by a car a year later.

Over the last 12 months I've been going through the learning process again after starting my journey into motorsport by passing my ARDS test and gaining an MSA National B licence at the tail-end of 2013.

Track time, though, has been limited in 2014 due to the one thing that affects drivers from bottom rung of motorsport all the way up to F1 itself – budget!

With a tin-top seat being eyed for next year, Dunlop offered me a masterclass in touring car racing with 2012 BTCC Champion Gordon Shedden of Honda Yuasa Racing. It was an opportunity not to be missed - and an invaluable eye-opener from start to finish in the art of touring car racing.

“Sometimes the common misconception is that to go fast is either flat-out or fully on the brakes,” the Scot explained as we awaited the greenlight at the end of the Silverstone pitlane. 

“It is more about feeling what sort of grip level you have available and ultimately it is back to day one at race school – how you can carry the most amount of exit speed.”

Honda

Around the Silverstone National Circuit exit speed is critical with the track essentially forming a triangle of long-straights. The constant temptation is to maximise your time at speed on the straights by leaving your braking as late as possible. But get it a fraction wrong and the time loss by running too deep is much greater than having braked too early. It sounds counter-intuitive but according to Shedden it is almost better to be slow in as long as you are fast out.

More from Starting In Motorsport

“There is a happy balance, you’ve still have to carry plenty of speed in, but I think to get it right is how you blend that middle part of the corner,” the Honda driver explains. 

“You have to a lot going on, you have to carry as much speed in as you can, you’ve got to change direction, and you’ve got to get it out. So it is using all the tools that are available to you, the brake isn’t just a switch – it is not full brakes or nothing – and it is the same with the throttle as well, there is a lot in between and that is where the driver can make a difference.”

That is something that can is particularly useful to utilise as you can control the pitch and yaw of the car through a corner and it also has a dramatic impact on oversteer and understeer.

Dunlop tyres

We are out on Dunlop’s slick BTCC tyre – a new experience for me having only previously driven a saloon car on road tyres around a race track.

“There is a very big difference,” explains Shedden. “In terms of learning I think the road tyre is probably better as the grey area is that bit bigger – on a road tyre you have grip and then there is quite a big grey area where you start to lose some grip, but not all grip, before you lose everything. 

“But on the slick tyre the margin for error is much smaller, so okay ultimately it has more grip, but the grey area is a bit smaller so it is easier to get it wrong.”

A key thing to manage with the slick tyre is getting them up to temperature. Thankfully some autumnal sun was breaking through at Silverstone with air temperatures edging towards 20c making my task slightly easier as the tyres needed help shaking off the cold.

“Because we are not allowed tyre warmers the tyre is coming from absolutely stone cold and still with the releasing agent on it from how it came out of the mould,” Shedden adds. 

“You’ve got to generate the heat through the tyre, not just on the surface and it is about trying to balance how much temperature you have between the front tyres and the rear tyres as well. So there is a real knack to getting the most from and optimising the tyre – trying not to overstress it when it is brand new or understress it so you don’t get enough temperature in it. You’ve got to give it some abuse without killing it.”

Honda

The grip from the Dunlop slick is incredible as the car sticks to the track like glue – it was particularly noticeable through the high-speed Copse corner where you could point the nose at the apex and get back on the power, without worrying about the rear passing you on exit. 

The layout of the Silverstone National Circuit doesn’t make keeping the tyres at the right temperature easy though. Brooklands is the sole left-hander on the track meaning a cold right-rear can be an issue.

“That right-rear tyre doesn’t really do anything until you get to Brooklands and ironically Brooklands is probably the toughest corner on the whole circuit to get right,” Shedden says. 

“You are going in there with a slightly cold right rear tyre and the car can feel unstable on the way in, but you’ve got to work quite hard on the set up to have the confidence and the balance in the car that doesn’t affect it too much.”

Learning more about car set up would have to wait for another day, but I certainly learnt a lot from the former champion and hope to be able to put some of it into practice in 2015 be it in Clios or Minis. The BTCC is perhaps a season or two away yet!

Shedden would go onto finish third in the 2014 championship, taking victory in the season finale at Brands Hatch, after recovering from the frightening experience of sitting alongside me.

Related article: Want to start racing?

Around Sky