Top 10 finish the target for Newsham at Oulton Park
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DAVE Newsham is targeting a third top 10 placing this season when the British Touring Car Championship resumes this weekend at Oulton Park.
To do so, however, the Inverness driver knows the importance of producing better performances in qualifying than he and his AmDTuning.com team have managed in the opening three rounds.
But with AmD running a Next Generation Touring Car for the first time this season and Newsham just having joined the team at the start of the campaign, he accepts it is still very much a learning curve for all involved.
"Unfortunately we haven’t been able to do any testing in the break due to the tight budget we are running," said the 46-year-old. "Therefore we will have to maintain our testing in the public eye during the race weekend.
"We have, however, learned a lot over the first three rounds. We have plenty of data to study, so we hope to make solid progress this weekend.
"There are a lot of positives to pull from the first three rounds. AmD have done a fantastic job on the engineering side. The car has been very reliable and we have a very quick car in race trim.
"The negatives are that we haven’t been able to produce a decent qualifying performance. This has put us too far down the field to be able to run with the leaders.
"Also, I have made two very crucial mistakes in race one of the last two rounds, which has hampered our progress during the weekend.
"We need to be realistic, we have a fraction of the budget of the top teams. Most of the top drivers and teams have been together for years, fine tuning their set-ups.
"They know exactly what they are doing and have the budgets to throw money at a problem if necessary.
"This season is the first time AmD have run an NGTC car and the first time we have worked together too. We are learning with every race how to improve our performance, so I would say we will only get better.
"The gap to the bigger teams will get smaller as the season progresses. I predict a strong second half of the season for us."
Although he has yet to compete on the full circuit being used this weekend, Newsham has won at Oulton Park in the Renault Clio Cup and qualified on the second row for last season’s corresponding BTCC event.
The target now is to push on for what would be AmD’s maiden podium finish.
"We have to try and qualify higher up the grid and then stay out of trouble in the first two races and see if we can benefit from the reverse grid to try and make a push for the podium," said Newsham.
Despite being unable to carry out an on track test during the spring break, AmD has worked hard behind the scenes to make improvements to its Ford Focus and team boss Shaun Hollamby is hopeful that a top three finish is a realistic target to set for Oulton Park.
"We’ve been doing a lot of technical work behind the scenes that has focused on improving our qualifying performance, as that has been our Achilles heel so far," he said.
"With the pace we have shown on race day, the results we have taken so far could have been better if we had qualified higher up the grid and we aim to put that right.
"Dave has been quick at Oulton Park in the past and it is a circuit that has suited the Focus as well, so we head north in confident mood. A podium finish remains our target and I think it is a target that is achievable this weekend."
