Newsham ends first round on a high
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DAVE Newsham opened the new British Touring Car Championship season with a top 10 finish in the final race at Brands Hatch.
Making his debut with the AmD Tuning team, Inverness driver Newsham finally managed to get himself amongst the points after missing out in the opening two races.
It was a positive end to what had been an event of mixed fortunes for the 46-year-old.
"We started the first two races strongly, but in both we were struggling with the balance of the car and I was fighting understeer as they went on," said Newsham.
"It meant it was difficult to try and keep my position and we missed out on the chance to get some points on the board.
"For race three, we went softer on the front end of the car and it was a lot more planted. It wasn’t perfect and there are still more improvements that we can make, but it was the best it had been all weekend.
"I got a good start and we were able to move forwards. It was good to get into the top 10 and give a taste of what we are capable of.
Having worked on the set-up of his Next Generation Touring Car Ford Focus during the two free practice sessions, Newsham qualified 20th on the grid for his first race with the car, despite setting a best time just seven-tenths of a second off pole.
With work to do when the first race kicked off, Newsham made a fine start as he stayed out of trouble, making up four places on the opening lap alone into 16th spot. By the end of lap two, he had managed to work his way into the points scoring positions.
He showed the speed within the car to fight his way forwards to 12th spot before contact from the Mercedes of Adam Morgan saw him run wide at Druids. Struggling with understeer as the race wore on, Newsham slipped back to 17th at the finish.
The former Renault Clio Cup champion elected to run the soft compound Dunlop tyre in race two and was hopeful of pushing himself into the points.
A solid opening lap saw Newsham get his car up to 15th and he was able to again show the potential in the new package as he posted a quickest lap comparable with race winner Andrew Jordan. However, further understeer as the race wore on meant he was powerless to keep the MG of Jason Plato at bay, leaving him just outside the points scoring positions in 16th.
A series of grid penalties for indiscretions elsewhere meant Newsham started the final race of the weekend from 15th, and with the team having worked hard to further improve the performance of the Focus, he easily enjoyed his best race.
Making up two places on the opening lap, Newsham worked himself into the top 10 with a series of impressive overtaking moves and, having matched the pace of the leaders, crossed the line in ninth spot to pick up his first points of the campaign.
See Friday’s Courier for Dave Newsham’s diary from Brands Hatch.
