Newsham snares silverware as BTCC season concludes
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DAVE Newsham rounded off his British Touring Car season with some silverware by claiming the Jack Sears Trophy at Brands Hatch.
The trophy, awarded to the driver with the most positions gained in the BTCC campaign, was won by Newsham who made up 109 positions on his qualifying places over the 2014 season.
Swiss driver Alain Menu had led Newsham by 103 to 96 heading into the day, but he failed to improve on his 13th place in race one, exited race two after 17 laps and did not start race three.
That meant Newsham was required make up eight positions before he could be presented with the trophy — something he achieved with a race still to spare in Kent.
"It’s great for us to end the season with a trophy," said Newsham. "This weekend has been a challenge but the team gave me a great car. On Saturday it was the best it has been all season but unfortunately the incident in race one meant we couldn’t show it. For race two, it wasn’t perfect and I did what I could, which meant we were in the best position going into race three.
"The team was keeping me up to speed on what we needed to do, so I made sure that I kept the car on track and didn’t do anything silly to secure the trophy."
Improvements made to the team’s Ford Focus saw Inverness racer Newsham on the pace from the outset when the on-track action got under way. He produced his best qualifying performance of the year to earn 10th place on the grid, despite his session ending early when he slid off into the gravel at Sheene.
Newsham’s chances of a strong result in the opening race would be brought to a premature end when he was one of the innocent parties to be caught up in an incident at turn one, which damaged his Focus and forced him to return to the pits. Although the team would get him back on track, the 47-year-old was ultimately forced to bring the car back into the pits to retire, leaving him 25th on the grid for race two.
Doing what he could with a car not performing at its best, Newsham worked his way up to 17th place in the second race, which meant he went into the season finale having moved to the head of the Jack Sears Trophy standings. With the team in the pits keeping him up to speed on what was required to secure the crown, he produced a solid drive in race three — held in atrocious wet conditions — to take the flag in 12th spot, enough to secure the trophy by six positions.
"The fact we have won a trophy that is awarded for making up places shows that we have had a strong race car all season," said Newsham. "Our real strength has been the speed we’ve shown on race days and, if I’m back with the team in 2015, what we need to do is qualify higher up the order to really mix it towards the front on a more regular basis.
"It’s been a learning year for both the team and myself but I think we can be happy.
"We’ve tried a lot of things with the car and have done a lot of testing in the public eye, which isn’t ideal. But to come away from the season having shown our speed, with a podium finish at Knockhill and a trophy to our name, is great."
Newsham finishes the 2014 campaign in 17th place in the drivers’ championship, as Colin Turkington roared to the title on Sunday.
The highlight for the Carmarthen-born racer will undoubtedly by the Knockhill weekend where, despite the passing of his mother and three journeys between Inverness and Edinburgh in 24 hours, he finished ninth, eighth and then second in the final race.
Team boss Shaun Hollamby was pleased to end the year with some silverware, with focus now turning towards the team’s planned expansion for the 2015 campaign.
"The team have done a fantastic job to give Dave a car that has been reliable all year," he said. "Dave has been great to work with and it would be good for us to continue in 2015 but we’ll have to sit down and talk over the winter and see what happens for next year."
