Gordon Shedden rolled back the years at Oulton Park last weekend (21-22 June) as he produced a vintage performance to put TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA in the British Touring Car Championship winners’ circle for the first time in 2025 – having started race day plum last on the grid.
The Toyota Corolla GR Sport was in the mix from the outset around the undulating Cheshire circuit – home soil for Northwich-based Speedworks Motorsport, the team that prepares and runs the British-built Japanese ‘hot hatch’ in the country’s premier motor racing series.
Three-time BTCC champion Shedden was a top ten contender throughout free practice amongst the 25 high-calibre protagonists, while team-mate Árón Taylor-Smith underscored the Corolla’s potential by going a superb second-quickest in FP2 – a mere 0.134s shy of the top spot – with fellow Toyota driver James Dorlin close behind in fourth.
Shedden’s momentum was abruptly halted in qualifying as he lost all of his representative lap times to track limits penalties, leaving him at the very back of the grid for Sunday’s curtain-raising contest. Characteristically unbowed, the Scot battled through to take the chequered flag 17th – the second-best finisher on the slower hard-compound tyres – before scything further forward on soft Goodyear rubber in race two to wind up ninth.
That secured him pole position for the day’s partially reversed-grid finale – and he did not waste it. Following a textbook getaway on a now wet track surface, by the end of the opening tour, Shedden – affectionately known in the paddock as ‘Flash’ – was already a second-and-a-half up the road, and while a couple of mid-race safety car interventions brought his pursuers right onto his tail, he didn’t put so much as a wheel-out-of-place.
Artfully soaking up the pressure of two fellow title-winners breathing down his neck, he called upon all of his experience, racecraft and guile to keep Jake Hill and Ash Sutton at bay. An error by the former on the penultimate lap then gave the series returnee some welcome breathing space, and he duly went on to seal TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA’s first victory of the season and his own first in three years. It was a champion’s drive by any yardstick, and the emotion when he climbed out of the cockpit was palpable.
Dorlin similarly enjoyed a strong weekend. Buoyed by a breakthrough performance at Thruxton a fortnight earlier, the 26-year-old BTCC rookie was once more up at the sharp end, and after progressing to the ‘Quick Six’ shootout in qualifying for the second consecutive event, he proceeded to line up an impressive fifth on the grid for the opener, a scant 0.048s adrift of championship leader and four-time champion Sutton and barely a tenth-of-a-second shy of a spot on the front row.
A lively race-long duel with Josh Cook yielded a third top ten finish of his maiden campaign in the championship, before contact in the heat of battle dropped him to 13th in race two. The Yorkshireman – a former McLaren Young Driver Programme member and British GT champion in-class – capped his day with an excellent run to eighth in race three, marking his first triple points score in the series and earning him the Jack Sears Trophy from Oulton Park for good measure.
Taylor-Smith endured a more frustrating time. After qualifying 12th, the BTCC’s reigning Independents’ Trophy winner immediately leapt up into the top ten in race one in front of the live ITV4 television cameras and capacity trackside crowd, but a tag from behind at the hairpin on lap 11 sent him ricocheting into another car, and while able to continue, the resultant damage caused him to slip back to 13th at the flag.
The 35-year-old Irishman climbed to ninth in race two, but with less than three laps remaining, he was obliged to pull off the circuit due to engine failure, and despite the Speedworks crew’s best efforts to replace it, with the short turnaround before race three, he was unfortunately unable to take part in the finale.
In the fourth Corolla, series debutant Finn Leslie – at just 17, the youngest driver in the field – settled into his new surroundings during free practice, getting closer to the outright pace throughout and going on to qualify a very respectable 21st. A driveshaft issue on the formation lap ahead of race one subsequently saw him pushed off the grid, but a swift repair job by the team enabled him to join the fray two laps down and get some more mileage under his belt.
The Wakefield-born teenager then gained six spots to wind up 17th in race two, before maturely keeping his head in the tricky mixed conditions in race three to sign off in style with a points-paying finish in 12th, scarcely three seconds shy of the top ten.
Following its annual summer break, the BTCC will resume at Croft in North Yorkshire on 2-3 August.
Christian Dick, Team Principal, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said:
“What a way to conclude the first half of the season! To take our first win of 2025 was a fantastic achievement, and to do so on home soil in front of family, friends and sponsors made it even more special. It’s no secret that we’ve had a tough time of things in the BTCC so far this year, but our performance and results at Oulton Park have given everybody a much-needed lift and plenty of motivation to continue pushing hard over the summer break.
“For Gordon to come from 25th on the grid at the start of the day to take the chequered flag first in the finale marked an incredible turnaround, and is testament to every single member of this team’s never-say-die spirit and commitment. Under significant pressure from two fellow champions, it was a faultless, expertly-driven race in which his class truly shone through and you could clearly see how much it meant to him.
“Gordon deservedly took the plaudits, but all four drivers excelled. James was again a standout star in qualifying and fought hard for points in all three races, while Árón was similarly in the mix but on the receiving end of more than his fair share of bad luck. As for Finn, for a young lad of such limited experience to come in, score points on his debut and hold his own against some of the very best drivers in the country was genuinely remarkable. He has a very bright future ahead of him, of that I have no doubt.”
Gordon Shedden, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said:
“What a weekend of two halves! From starting at the back in race one, to coming through to win race three was just epic – you never tire of that winning feeling! I thought we had played a good strategy in using the hard tyres early on so as to save a set of softs for the end, but the rain coming down meant we never got chance to use them and I feared maybe our chance was gone.
“That said, the balance in the car felt good in the wet and ultimately, we won on the same tyre as everybody else, which was really satisfying. The conditions were quite tricky and I had to use all my years of experience to get the job done – there were parts of the lap where our car was strong and parts of the lap where the other cars were strong, so I had to stay super-defensive in some places to not leave myself exposed while allowing the Toyota to stretch its legs elsewhere.
“I was so thankful to get it over the line, and to see the whole team from TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA hanging over the pit wall when I came past the chequered flag was just incredible! We’ve clearly had our trials and tribulations since the start of the season, so I was delighted for them all and it was nice to give everybody a little boost going into the summer break. There’s so much effort going on back at base, and this was a real step in the right direction.”
Árón Taylor-Smith, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said:
“Oulton is one of my favourite tracks. You’re always on the ragged edge and I love racing there, so I was looking forward to getting my elbows out and the Corolla showed great pace throughout Saturday. While things didn’t quite align for us in qualifying – in hindsight, maybe we would have considered a slightly different strategy in Q2 – we will learn from that and we knew we could fight from 12th on the grid.
“We were in the thick of the action in race one, but a few battle scars prevented any further progression, which was a shame because I felt we could have finished inside the top ten quite comfortably. Race two started off very well and we looked to be in a really strong position for a shot at the reversed grid draw, but an engine failure with just a few laps to go put paid to our chances. The team was massively up against it to try to get it replaced ahead of race three, and unfortunately time ran out.
“On a positive note, it was great to see Gordon get the result that he and the whole team deserved after everybody’s tireless efforts to give us a car that can win. While the cards didn’t fall my way on this occasion, the weekend once again proved that we are continuing to make significant progress, which gives us a lot of confidence going into the mid-season break.”
James Dorlin, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said:
“We entered the weekend looking to carry forward our momentum from Thruxton, and the car felt nicely-balanced from the word ‘go’. I think Oulton Park’s tight-and-twisty nature suited the Corolla well, and it was good to show our pace in the dry after qualifying fifth in the wet at Thruxton.
“We definitely maximised everything on Saturday, and I was really happy to reach the ‘Quick Six’ again. To end up just over a tenth-of-a-second off the front row was brilliant – that was credit to all the guys and girls at TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA for doing such a great job.
“I struggled for pace a bit in race one and had a hard-but-fair battle with Josh [Cook] that included a couple of heart-in-mouth moments; although we weren’t able to capitalise upon our strong starting position, we did manage to hold onto a top ten finish at least.
“We made a few changes to the car for race two and it felt better, but contact in the pack dropped me to 18th and with the long safety car interruption, I was only able to fight back through to 13th. The rain then probably helped us in race three, enabling us to sign off with another top ten and the Jack Sears Trophy. Perhaps without the laps lost due to the safety cars we might have made up a bit more ground still, but I was quite happy anyway. That was a good way to end the weekend and the first half of the season.”
Finn Leslie, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said:
“That was a really good weekend – I couldn’t have asked for much more! I knew it would be my toughest challenge to-date, but I was hugely excited to grab the bull by the horns.
“I’d not driven the Corolla in anger around a track until Saturday, so it was all about getting used to the car and finding its limits; it’s a bit different to the TCR car I normally drive, but I settled in quite well and felt fairly comfortable straightaway. I was under a much bigger spotlight than I’d ever been before, and there’s so much more responsibility that comes with racing in the BTCC, both on-track and off, but I took everything step-by-step and felt like I made big improvements with every session.
“What happened at the start of race one was obviously unfortunate, but big thanks to the team for getting me out so I could get a race distance in pretty much – and my lap times were encouragingly competitive. The Toyota then felt really good in race two and I got stuck in and pulled off a few overtakes, and I enjoyed the mixed conditions in race three – lap-by-lap, the circuit was constantly evolving, and you never knew what the grip would be like from one corner to the next.
“As the track dried out, it seemed to come to us more and more and whilst others began to struggle towards the end, I was able to keep pushing on. We had set ourselves a pre-weekend goal of getting into the points, but I thought it might be a bit out-of-reach on my debut or that we could maybe scrape a 15th place at best. To finish 12th up against drivers who have been doing this for several years and to be battling on the fringes of the top ten was honestly amazing!”
