Dave Newsham is looking to put the likes of Mat Jackson, Árón Smith and Adam Morgan “under a lot of pressure” for the second race of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season finale at Brands Hatch.
The Power Maxed Racing driver went off at Hawthorns on the very first lap, with his Chevrolet Cruze suffering only superficial front end damage from hitting the tyre barrier. This was just seconds before Dextra Racing’s Alex Martin hit the barriers approaching Westfield shortly after, bringing out the Safety Car.
“It was a good recovery, I suppose. It wasn’t the plan, as the plan was to move deep into the top ten, but I went down the outside, and it’s always a bit risky to do that,” said the 48-year-old to TouringCars.net.
“I think somebody checked up and someone else dodged out the way, hit me and off I went.
“I thought it was going to be a big accident, but thankfully, the tyres are quite forgiving at the end there, as we bounced off them. Not too much damage.”
He explained that he saw the aftermath of Martin’s crash, and then went about posting a fast lap time, which saw him just 0.180 seconds off the pace set by pole setter Jackson.
“So then, race was finished, so let’s see what we could do with the lap time, which was really good. That’s where we should have been in qualifying, but we were held up by other cars yesterday.
“Race two, we’ve got to go for a podium, as the other guys are all on ballast. We’re going to be light, going to be quick, and we’re going to put them under a lot of pressure, and see what we can get out of this.”