From the leftfield, a right Royal Mail mix-up gives the world the earlier than planned news that Gordon Shedden will make a return to the BTCC with Speedworks Toyota for 2025.

The rather fallible national mail delivery service (who managed to lose a few hundred copies of Touring Car Magazine all through last year) dropped subscriber issues of Autosport Magazine through some letterboxes on Saturday morning ahead of schedule for their March 11th release date. With the publication having shifted from a weekly to monthly earlier this year.

The previously embargoed news was released on Sunday morning after the firm (which completed privatisation in 2013, and has been dropping in reliability ever since) allowed the news to move into the public domain – with the first public mention of the Shedden/Toyota news being traced to a post on the Ten-Tenths Forum.

The move for the three-time champion will come as a surprise to some as this marks the second BTCC comeback for Shedden – the first being after a two-year stint in the WTCC in 2018/19. After spending the last two years on the sidelines there was an assumption from some fans that he was gone from the series for good.

On that occasion Shedden – who took his first win in the BTCC in 2006 – returned to his natural home of Dynamics in a Honda Civic, and across 2021/22 he put on show the fact that he had not lost any ability in a tin top. Four wins in a car that in retrospect seems to have been a challenge to drive, sixth and seventh in a championship that had become even more competitive at the sharp end were a feat in themselves. Shedden had planned to continue into 2023 with the team, but the very late withdrawal of Halfords sponsorship (18 months after Honda had ditched works support for the squad) he was left on the sidelines.

In the statement released by Speedworks confirming his return to the BTCC, Shedden was quoted as saying: “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!”

The Corolla has been a consistent race winner since entered as a single car for Tom Ingram in 2019, but has just been shy of the other ‘works supported’ teams in that period in terms of performance. A mid-season upgrade last year seemed to please the 2024 driving squad, with Josh Cook and Rob Huff (who is being linked to a return) believing that it was the first step towards becoming a championship challenging car.

Team principal Christian Dick added: “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.”

The first official test for Shedden and the team will be at Croft on April 1^st/2^nd.