New team-mate driving Newsham towards top 10
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THE competition of a team-mate has Dave Newsham convinced he can crack the top ten in this year’s British Touring Car Championship.
Newsham will be joined at new team Power Maxed Racing by Josh Cook, a close contender in the Clio Cup last year, a trophy won by the Inverness driver before his ascent into BTCC.
Following his one-year deal with the team, Newsham believed he was due to be driving solo until a last-minute deal for Cook meant they would press ahead with two cars on the grid.
The 2015 season opens this weekend at Brands Hatch in Kent, with Newsham in his first race since leaving AmDTuning.com at the end of last season. He is ready for the competition Cook will provide and said it should work to his advantage.
“Josh is going to push me quite hard and should have won the Clio Cup last year. He’s an intelligent guy and I’m pretty sure we’ll want to beat each other,” said Newsham.
“The big gain is that we can work together and help the team — there’ll be no secrets and we can improve the car. But what happens on the track happens and the best man will be fastest.”
He added that he had not really had competition from within his own team during his stint in BTCC.
“Last year I was driving on my own and the couple of years before that, I was towards the front of the grid whereas my team-mate was at the back,” said Newsham. “It’ll push me towards the top 10 and that’s where I want to be. I don’t think that’s unachievable.”
Competition will be as fierce as ever on the 32-driver grid. Last year’s top two, champion Colin Turkington and rival Jason Plato, both left their respective teams and joined forces at Team BMR. Newsham’s place at AmDTuning.com was taken by Mike Bushell, the man who beat Cook to the Clio Cup title in 2014. Team champions West Surrey Racing have rebranded under the Team JCT600 moniker and retain just one of their drivers, Rob Collard, from the last campaign, adding Sam Tordorf and Andy Priaulx.
Expectations are not high for Newsham and his team ahead of the opener, with work still needed on the Chevrolet Cruze and limited testing time being available.
“I don’t want to build us up saying ‘we’ll get a podium’ on the first weekend, because that’s unlikely,” he said. “But there is potential there to do something great.
“We’ll have two practice sessions where we can test the different parts and suspension settings of the car, but then it’s into three races. You never know, we could surprise ourselves.
“The grid is as competitive as ever but hopefully we manage to find a good qualifying setup. That’s what let us down last year.”
The Brands Hatch race day will be televised on ITV4 on Sunday, starting at 10.30am.
