Dave Newsham will be aiming to put his Speedworks Toyota on the podium at Thruxton, having secured a podium finish twelve months ago in the Vauxhall Vectra.
“I have always performed well there,” said Newsham. “I gained a second place result last year on a soaking wet weekend, and we need to be aiming at that kind of outcome again to start climbing the championship order.”
Newsham scored a brace of top-ten finishes at the previous round at Donington Park, finding himself in ninth in the British Touring Car Championship Independents’ Trophy standings after six races. Team boss Christian Dick is hoping for an improvement in form at the high-speed Hampshire circuit, providing the weather from last year does not return.
“Ideally the weather will stay the same all weekend.” he said. “If it’s dry, then great. If not, then we’d prefer it to rain non-stop to give us time to develop a wet set-up. We’re happy with where we are after Donington; Dave’s results were solid, and put some points on the board. A lot of effort went in to giving both drivers a more balanced car, which was also a faster one by the end of race day. These things don’t just come easy, particularly when an engineer and team is getting used to working with a different driver. It takes time. We’re heading in the right direction now at a rate of knots.”
Elsewhere in the Speedworks camp, Ollie Jackson will be looking to turn his fortunes around after a Donington Park event to forget.
“We were all blown away by what Ollie achieved [at Brands Hatch] in the first round, so expectations perhaps were raised a little too high for Donington.” continued Dick. “His disadvantage in terms of a lack of seat time was more apparent there, but with another race day under his belt he’ll start again with renewed enthusiasm. Ollie is an experienced BTCC racer; he’ll come good, no doubt about it.”
