I know I’ve written about fingernails a lot this week, but if you’re a nail biter (gross), prepare for the entire ends of your fingers to be completely annihilated after you watch the last laps of this year’s British Touring Car Championship.
A little background as to why this is so intense: Gordon Shedden came into this race with a narrow 12-point lead over Jason Plato. Race Two of the weekend had left him with a garbage 19th place start for the final race of the season. This meant that Shedden had to finish 5th or higher to clinch the season title. Meanwhile, Shedden’s nearest championship rival, Jason Plato, was up front.
Here are the last ten laps of that last race. Shedden not only makes short work of cutting through the field, but those last few places were tough to gain.
Finally, Gordon Shedden had worked up to sixth place, but there was a bit of space between him and the cars in front of him. If you want to see what teamwork looks like, look no further than the help given by Shedden’s Honda Yuasa teammate Matt Neal. Neal not only held up traffic to allow Shedden to catch up and pass for the fifth place finish that he needed, but he ultimately moved aside to let Shedden through and allow Shedden to extend his points lead.
Once Shedden was out in front of Neal, Neal held up traffic even more to help keep other cars from catching up. Shedden finished with an unbelievable fourth place finish, and the driver’s championship for 2015. Plato may have won the race, but he was four points behind Shedden.
Hold on to your butts and watch this fantastic string of passes.
[H/T FlatOutOrEffOff]
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.