Defending British Touring Ca🙈r champion Gordon Shedden has emerged from the Oulton Park weekend in the lea♉d of the 2017 title race, but is wary of an 'unspectacular start to Croft'.

The Honda Civic Type-R driver entered the fourth weekend of 2017 17-points adrift oꦇf previous leader Tom Ingram but has instead emerged♒ from Oulton Park with a 16-point lead over Team BMW's Rob Collard.

Shedden expected Oulton Park to be 'one o꧂f the toughest weekends' of 2017 for Honda but the reigning triple champion picked up a strong haul of points as well as taking his second wi🤪n of the year in race three.

The Team Dynamics driver pounced on Andrew Jordan immediately after the late safety car in the fina🌄l race to take the win away from his BMW rival, even if the former was caught by surprise whilst making the move.

"It was a little mediocre through race one and two. I was driv🔴ing my heart out and the car was feeling good but 💎without spectacular result of a podium. But points make prizes. So I was grinding out the results in the first two," said Shedden.

"I wasn't really sure what to expect. The B🌠MWs have been lightning round here all day, as well as the Subaru📖s. Andrew [Jordan] just lost the balance out of the car after in the safety car.

"The race just came to us. I had no intention of passing him at Cascades on that 🦹lap. He just jumped on the brakes so early! I just had to send it somewhere just to avoid clattering st💙raight in the rear."

Whilst his race winning move on Jordan was a relatively straight-forward affair, Shedden's earlier overtake on Josh Cook for♐ second position caused theꦬ latter to retire from the race with suspension damage.

The contact between theꦰ pair🌃 broke Cook's rear-right suspension and Shedden was given a verbal warning over the incident.

Speaking after the race, Shedden described the incident: "It was a genuine move. Once you're committed on the brakes, ♔you can't get out of the way."

The series reconvenes for the fifth event of the season at Croft in just un♔der three-weeks' time, where Shedden will once again def♛end his lead with 75 kilos of ballast on board.

"With it [the 16-point lead] comes 75 kilos of ballast at Croft again! We have to prepare a🌸gain for another unspectacular start at Croft," he continued.

"A little bit of weight does seem to chill the car out a bit. I ⛦guess that's one of the things you've got to deal with. It's not spectacular but you've got to try and get as near as you can."