Newsham expects BTCC responses in new year
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DAVE Newsham expects responses from British Touring Car teams by the second week of January as he searches for a 2015 drive.
Meetings are being scheduled at the Autosport Show in Birmingham — which attracts the motorsport elite — where Newsham hopes to hear positive news.
The 47-year-old has "two or three irons in the fire" for next season and is not disheartened by the lack of progress so far. He has been without a drive since the AmDTuning.com team decided to take on Clio Cup winner Mike Bushell for the 2015 campaign.
In the interim, he has been approached by a team that competes in the Porsche Carrera Cup, but his focus remains securing a place on the BTCC grid.
"It’s nice having a fall-back option and I’ve had a chat with them, but the main focus is staying in BTCC," he said.
"Everything starts to kick off again at the Autosport Show and I will be going down there to speak to a number of teams. I’ll set up a couple of meetings because just about everyone in the motorsport industry comes to the show."
Newsham has also received offers to compete in the Ginetta Supercup, a prospect he described as "very affordable".
One of the biggest challenges he faces is agreeing on a financial package with teams, which involves him bringing in a set amount of sponsorship money and also the team being able to fund his drive.
The Westhill driver has worked out a sponsorship package for teams and even released a promotional video on YouTube to try attract more sponsors.
"It’s a bit of a Catch 22 situation. Sponsors want to know who you are driving for before they make you an offer and teams want to know what sponsors you have before they offer you a deal," said Newsham.
"I’ve had a lot of positive responses to the video and a couple of potential sponsors have got in touch. But it’s not an instant process. You have to send away more detail and at this time of year, you don’t want to push people into deals when things are winding down. They’re not really focused on marketing.
"I’ll get back to people in the new year and see if they can sponsor me. BTCC is big business right now and is on a high it hasn’t been on since the 1990s."
Even though the season is over and teams will be quieter on a commercial front, work will still be going on behind the scenes to prepare their cars for next season.
As soon as the season is over, the car is stripped down and improvements worked on for the new campaign.
It is only once the car is done that negotiations with prospective drivers can begin, which Newsham knows is not a simple process.
"They take a bit of time. By the time you’re given a serious offer the deal is still a few weeks away from actually getting done," he said.
"There’s not that many drives left on the grid and it’s filling up. I’ll have to get to work quickly."
