Newsham still aiming high as new BTCC starts
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THE competition at the top is fiercer than it has ever been ahead of the new British Touring Car Championship starting tomorrow.
Seven champions at this level, an F3 title winner who once beat Jenson Button line up alongside previous GT, Ginetta, Formula Ford and Clio Cup victors are just some of those making up the grid this season.
Some would view it as a daunting prospect, but not Inverness driver Dave Newsham. He might be with one of the smaller teams, yet it is does not temper his ambitions to mix it with the big boys.
"It is going to be an incredible season with 31 cars on the track," said the 46-year-old. "There are sure to be a lot of thrills and spills.
"I want to be a thorn in the sides of the works teams, that is for sure.
"However, I have to remind myself that we are a very small team on a very small budget when setting targets.
"That said my focus is finishing consistently deep inside the top ten. If we are qualifying inside the top ten, then there is always a change of picking up podiums.
"There is also the race three reverse grid, where if we draw a front row position, we could turn them into wins."
Newsham will this season race for AmD Essex in a Next Generation Touring Car Ford Focus — his fourth team in as many years since making the step up to the BTCC in 2011.
His hope is that it can bring about a return to the form of two years ago where as part of Team ES Racing, Newsham enjoyed his best-ever season, finishing on the podium six times and being named by the fans as driver of the year.
"There’s no question we under achieved as a team last year," said Newsham, who spent the 2013 season with Speedworks Motorsport.
"This was mainly due to my engineer going in the wrong direction with set-up of the car. Once he was released from his post, we started to make solid progress, but it was a little too late in the season for us.
"This year, I have a good car, a great little team and I am as motivated as ever to be at the sharp end of the grid."
Going into this weekend’s season opener at Brands Hatch, Newsham is reasonably happy with how preparations have gone so far.
"We could have done with more testing, but we are having to run with a tight budget," said Newsham, who is the managing director of Norscott Vending. "However, we are reasonably pleased with the way testing has gone."
See next Friday’s Inverness Courier for Dave Newsham’s diary from Brands Hatch.
SPONSORSHIP and having enough of it plays a huge part in a driver like Dave Newsham being able to compete in the British Touring Car Championship. Below are his sponsors for the 2014 season:
Clarke Energy, No Fear Extreme Energy, Coffee-drops.co.uk, Kitwave, Automatic Retailing, Ynot Aspire, Alps, Vendman, Xeretec, One Estates, Elite Markings, Component AV Services, Apex Signs, Atkins Bland, Smart Image Workwear, Norscott Vending Services, Johnston Carmichael, Towergate Moray Firth Insurance, Watson Infotech Simply Wifi, Mrs Clean, Viscom Design, PHP Lettings, McBride Signs, Nessa’s Little Nippers, Macrae and Dick and WRC.
