Newsham set for Oulton Park
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
BUDGET constraints may have deprived Dave Newsham of being able to do any testing during a six-week break in this year’s British Touring Car Championship, but he remains confident he can still compete for places at the front of the grid.
While others were able to look at possible improvements to their cars, Team ES Racing and Inverness driver Newsham have been limited financially in terms of making the Vauxhall Vectra better.
Work has been carried out to rebuild Newsham’s car, but getting the chance to run tests on a track is something the budget will not stretch to.
That is a slight concern for the 44-year-old as Oulton Park looms on Sunday, yet he is still bullish about his chances of challenging amongst the leaders.
"ES Racing have been very busy during this period making sure the cars are in tip top condition," said Newsham, who currently sits in seventh place in the BTCC standings on 74 points. "They have been taken completely apart, rebuilt and should be better than ever.
"It’s difficult to know where we will be compared to our competitors at Oulton. We are on a very tight budget, so we haven’t been able to do any testing since Thruxton, but I read that all of our competitors have done.
"They might have moved the game on a little. We won’t know for sure until we hit the fantastic Oulton Park circuit.
"Either way, we know our ES Racing VXR is quick, probably as quick as it will ever be as it has had a lot of Works 888 Vauxhall development over the years.
"I have a lot of confidence in the car to push it to its limits, so we were not going to go any quicker with testing anyway.
"My gut feeling is that we will be just as competitive as we were before the break.
"I love Oulton Park. It’s one of my favourite tracks and I have always performed well there.
"However, I hope we have a dry weekend, I don’t want to be making any of those 50/50 calls on tyres as I got it completely wrong in my last race."
A second and a third placing, along with his first-ever pole position, have been the highlights of a much better season for Newsham. His target now is to produce three consistent drives in order to further boost his points tally.
"I want three strong points finishes, that will be a first for me this season," he said. "I am enjoying the podiums, so let’s see if we can get up there again.
"If we are to get a win this year, it needs to be soon, so let’s hope we can sneak a win."
All the action from Oulton Park on Sunday will be screened live on ITV4 with their programme starting at 11.30am.
