Speedworks Motorsport’s Dave Newsham enjoyed his best result of the year in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Brands Hatch, despite admitting to aquaplaning problems.
Newsham had previously had a difficult first race of the day, dropping from a high of eighth to 11th after struggling with the set-up on his Toyota. However in race two the Scot powered from 11th on the grid to fourth, his best result since taking a podium at the penultimate meeting in 2012. It is also Speedworks’ best result in the BTCC, equalling a fourth scored by Paul O’Neill at Knockhill in 2012.
“It was good,” said Newsham to TouringCars.Net of his second race. “We made some big changes to the car after the first race because we weren’t competitive. We’ve made a lot of changes to the car over the last couple of rounds anyway and we just didn’t have a wet set-up. We’ve found one now and we can tweak it again, so we seem to be reasonably competitive.
“The conditions were great to start with – it didn’t look like it was raining at all and then there was a massive downpour. We were aquaplanuing quite a lot all over the place, so I backed it right off for two or three laps and then started to pick the pace up again towards the end. It was a good race, I enjoyed it.”
Newsham has now gone 31 races without a podium finish and is therefore keen to score a podium in the final race of the season, from which he starts from fourth on the grid.
“I just wasn’t competitive at all [in race one]. I completely turned it around and we were mega in race two. Hopefully we can do the same again – I think we’re fourth on the grid for the final race and I’m desperate to get a podium for these guys. It would be awful to finish the year without any silverware at all.
“There’s loads of grip out the back and hardly any grip out here around the Indy. It’s on a knife-edge through Paddock Hill,” added Newsham.