Newsham staying positive as season resumes
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DAVE Newsham is adamant that both he and his AmD Tuning.com team can turn around their fortunes in the second half of the British Touring Car Championship season.
Struggles in qualifying have often left the Inverness driver with too much to do come race day, only finishing in the top 10 twice following the first five rounds.
But after a summer break, Newsham heads to Snetterton this weekend in bullish mood as the team look to learn from mistakes made earlier in the campaign.
"We are very confident we will have a good second half to the season," he said.
"We have learned a lot during the first half of the season. Now we need to put what we have learned together and start delivering results we know we are capable of.
"It has been a very frustrating season so far, especially when you consider that our race pace is good enough to be inside the top eight, but our qualifying pace is not great, and it is so competitive this year that it is very difficult to move forward.
"We are right in the middle of the field, which is fraught with danger and this has contributed to me being on the wrong end of some aggressive driving.
"We believed we would have been more competitive than we have been. That said, when you look at the quality of the teams, drivers and cars we are competing against, and that most of them have been together for years, it is not difficult to understand why we have struggled.
"We are all new to each other, so it is going to take time for us to gel together. However, we are getting there."
Despite failing to finish qualifying any higher than 16th place so far this season, Newsham insists his Ford Focus is not to blame.
"The car has been very reliable and the team have done a great job," said the 47-year-old. "It is just that the car is new to the team and they are learning what makes it tick.
"We have done very little testing, so we are testing at the circuit in public view. We are learning all the time and very soon all we have learned will come together and we will be competitive.
"We also had a big upgrade on the car at Croft and things were looking good, only to be struck by bad luck in race two, so I am looking forward to seeing if the upgrade will help us at Snetterton this weekend."
This weekend’s venue, which is based in Norfolk, is one that has given Newsham plenty of reasons to be cheerful in the past and he hopes to have a smile on his face again come Sunday evening.
"Snetterton is one of my favourite tracks on the calendar," he said. "It is the biggest track with a great mix of corners, while there are some very high speed and some very technical sections too.
"I have always gone well their and it was the venue of my first ever BTCC win in 2012. Let’s hope we have some good, clean races and see if we can maybe squeeze a podium result out of the weekend."
