A FORTNIGHT after what he dubbed “the worst racing weekend of my career”, Gordon Shedden was again left contemplating what might have been at the end of qualifying for today’s British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill.

The 36-year-old from Dalgety Bay in Fife, who last time out arrived at Snetterton leading the title race by 10 points and left trailing by 32 and having slipped to third, saw his potential pole lap ruined yesterday by Honda team-mate Matt Neal. Shedden, who had dominated the morning’s opening two free practice sessions in his new Honda Civic Type R, had managed his tyres throughout the half-hour qualifying session and was putting together a stonking lap.

However, the session was red-flagged when Neal spun off going through Duffus Dip, eventually winding up in the gravel at Leslie’s.

Shedden and the rest of the drivers on the track were forced to back off and pit.

When the session restarted, with less than five minutes remaining, he initially climbed to third, but was eventually relegated to fifth by the Ford of third-placed Mat Jackson and the BMW of fourth-placed Rob Collard. Both won races at Knockhill last year.

“It’s disappointing because I know the car was capable of pole, we’d shown that in the earlier sessions,” said 2012 champion Shedden. “I’d hoped that after Snetterton perhaps Lady Luck would smile a bit more kindly on us, but apparently not. Fingers crossed she’ll turn up tomorrow. One thing’s for sure, we’re in for a heck of an opening race.”

While three-times World Touring Car Championship winner Andy Priaulx will lead an all-BMW front row, after clocking the day’s fastest time of 51.671secs to pip Sam Tordoff by 0.152s, there was further disappointment for the top two in the fight for the BTCC crown.

Double BTCC champion Colin Turkington, who trails Jason Plato by 16 points and won twice at Snetterton, could only manage ninth in his Volkswagen CC.

But there was even worse news for the former Knockhill racing instructor’s Team BMR team-mate Plato who was only a distant 22nd.

The fact the Oxfordshire racer, whose car is carrying 75kg of “success ballast”, was only 0.771secs off Priaulx’s pole time showed how tight the competition was.

The two other Scots in the field, Aiden Moffat from Dalkeith, and Lesmahagow’s Derek Palmer – debuting his Support Our Paras Racing Infiniti at the track – start 11th and 23rd respectively.

“This is my first time racing here since I was a 16-year-old in a Ford Fiesta,” said Palmer, 28. “To be just 1.233 off the pole time shows how much progress we’ve made.

“We’re targeting a couple of top-20 finishes, and hopefully we can repeat what we did at Snetterton and sneak into the top 15.”