Gordon Shedden determined to defend BTCC title with Honda

The Honda driver charged from 19th to fourth in the final race of the season at Brands Hatch on Sunday to deny race winner Jason Plato the crown by just four points.

The Team Dynamics-run Honda outfit traditionally confirms its driver line-up one year at a time and Shedden told Autosport remaining in the BTCC with the factory-backed team was his priority.

"Without any shadow of a doubt," he said when asked about continuing.

"You want to race against the best in the world and I think we've got some of them in the BTCC.

"You might not have those with the title of world champion but to get into the top 10 in BTCC takes a hell of a lot of doing and I think Andy [Priaulx] would testify to that.

"I'm sure the competition will be even tougher next year. We're already thinking for next year because we know we're going to have to improve, because if we don't we'll go backwards at 1000mph.

"I've got a bit of time to try and get there [a third title]."

Shedden believes the fluctuating fortunes of this year's title protagonists makes his second success sweeter than the first.

"I was 30-odd points off the lead of the championship [after Snetterton]," he said.

"That is a long, long way to bring back. And even after race two, I thought it was gone as well. It shows you how fast it can change.

"It was pretty incredible. Race two was disastrous and I was sat on the grid for race three thinking 'this doesn't look pretty does it?'.

"It was a lot more stressful this time. In 2012 the big thing was the weather, we had a dominant car in the wet, it was much better than the MG, so that took the pressure off and we had a big advantage.

"This weekend has just been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions."