Pole position and podium finish for Newsham
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A POLE position followed by a podium finish was the reward for a fine start to the new British Touring Car Championship season by Dave Newsham.
Making his competitive debut for new team ES Racing, Inverness driver Newsham achieved the first pole position of his Touring Car career and despite then crashing out of race one, he recovered well to finish ninth overall in race two, before finishing at Brands Hatch with another first as he took a podium placing for coming home third in race three.
Significantly, Newsham’s pole lap was the fastest of the weekend and, as a result, he earns the first ‘Dunlop Drive with Confidence’ award — a set of title sponsor Dunlop’s new high performance Sport Maxx RT road tyres worth nearly £1000.
The 44-year-old was then right in the fight for victory in Sunday’s first race in his Vauxhall Vectra and, having been barged back down the field slightly, looked to have regained the lead from reigning champion Matt Neal’s new Honda Civic only to then crash out a split second later in a controversial clash with double title-winner Jason Plato’s MG6.
In the day’s second race, a safety car period allowed Newsham to un-lap himself following a pit stop to repair his car’s damaged floor and after a fine drive, he passed both Tom Onslow-Cole’s BMW and Daniel Welch’s Proton on the last lap to secure a ninth place finish.
After mixed fortunes in the first two races, the 2010 Renault Clio Cup champion ended on a real high by crossing the finishing line in third — the first podium result for himself and ES Racing.com.
"Race one was a big shame because I’d done the hard work, fought back up the order and was cleanly past Matt Neal into the lead only to get a very well-documented bang in the side, which put me into the gravel," said Newsham, who sits seventh in the driver standings on 24 points following events at Brands Hatch.
"I don’t want to say too much about the incident with Jason other than I am sure it wasn’t intentional on his part, rather an over-optimistic lunge that didn’t come off.
"The fact he didn’t admit it afterwards was, for me, the most disappointing part.
"But our pace in races two and three was very good — and with a car that was carrying some damage after the crash.
"I feel ready to take on anyone at the moment and I think we have another great chance of a pole and maybe even a win at Donington Park where the Vectras were very strong last year."
