Speedworks-run squad snaps up former title-holder for 2025 tin-top campaign
Gordon Shedden – one of the most successful drivers ever to grace the British Touring Car Championship grid – will rejoin the fray in 2025 with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, bolstering the front-running outfit’s already impressive driver line-up.
To race fans, Shedden needs little introduction. Three times a BTCC champion – in 2012, 2015 and 2016 – he has placed first, second or third in the overall standings on no fewer than eight occasions. Only three drivers in the long history of the country’s premier motorsport series have more titles to their credit than the Edinburgh-born ace, and his tally of 52 triumphs to-date puts him fifth on the all-time winners list – first amongst active competitors.
After departing the championship at the end of 2017, Shedden returned in 2021, ascending the podium 15 times over the course of two seasons – with four of those appearances on the very highest step.
Following another short hiatus, the driver affectionately known in the paddock as ‘Flash’ is back again, and with the British-built Toyota Corolla GR Sport, he has his sights firmly fixed on adding another tin-top crown to his illustrious career CV.
Prepared and run by Northwich, Cheshire-based Speedworks Motorsport, the Japanese ‘hot hatch’ has claimed 17 BTCC victories, 30 further rostrum results, five pole positions and ten fastest laps since making its debut in 2019. Almost a third of its wins were achieved last year.
The forthcoming 30-race Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship campaign will get underway at Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK’s ‘home’ track of Donington Park in Leicestershire on 26/27 April, with Shedden set to partner the previously announced Árón Taylor-Smith and fellow Scot Ronan Pearson on the driving strength, leaving just one final seat to be filled. It promises to be a potent combination.
Christian Dick, Team Principal, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said: “We’re thrilled to be bringing Gordon back to the BTCC. He is inarguably one of the very best drivers ever to have competed in the championship, and his achievements bear testament to his tremendous talent and tenacity behind the wheel. His comeback in 2021 and 2022 proved that he has lost none of his speed or spark, and it’s clear that his motivation and thirst for success still burn very brightly indeed.
“It’s no secret that the BTCC is won and lost by fine margins, and in addition to his unquestionable skill inside the cockpit, Gordon brings with him a wealth of experience. That will be invaluable as we continue to develop the Corolla in our efforts to extract the very last tenth-of-a-second out of it.
“With some pre-season testing between now and Donington Park, I am very confident that he can hit the ground running and be a leading contender from the outset. In Gordon, Árón and Ronan, we have an exceptionally strong line-up, which I honestly believe gives us our best chance yet of challenging for the coveted Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ crowns.”
Gordon Shedden, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said: “It’s pretty well-known that I didn’t want to leave the BTCC two years ago; the team I was due to race with pulled out of the championship on the eve of the season, which was a body blow and completely beyond my control. Since then, my desire to race has never gone away, but I don’t do this just to be on the grid, and I was quite clear that I wouldn’t come back unless it was with a programme that I believed in. That is what I am confident I have found here with Speedworks Motorsport and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK.
“The deal has come together in a very short space of time. I don’t think either of us thought the other was available, but once we began talking, we quickly discovered a lot of common ground and a willingness to make something happen. Christian [Dick] and Danny [Buxton – Speedworks Head of Motorsport] are both racers at heart, and their commitment to continuously improving every aspect of the operation struck me immediately. We’re all very much on the same page.
“Everybody has been working hard and keeping their heads down over the winter, and the team is consequently in a good place. Last year, three of the four Toyota drivers won races in the Corolla, so it’s evidently a very capable package and I’m excited to be working with Neil Brown Engineering again on the engine side and with Árón and Ronan as team-mates for the first time.
“The primary objective is to be competitive, so the immediate goal is to tick as many boxes as possible pre-season. We all know that success in the BTCC requires a lot of round pegs to fall into round holes, but experience counts for a lot in this championship and hopefully everything will come together and we can fight for race wins – if not more. That’s what we’re here for!”
