Dave Newsham secured his best result of the 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season with fourth place in the opening race of the day at Silverstone, the Power Maxed Racing man saying the Chevrolet squad are “as quick as anyone”.
Starting fifth on the grid, the Chevrolet Cruze slipped back at the start of the race before Newsham fought his way onto the back of a battle for second spot, headed by Andrew Jordan.
Newsham eased by Sam Tordoff before battling championship leader Gordon Shedden for the final spot on the podium, narrowly missing out behind his fellow Scot en route to netting a best result of 2015.
On his battle for a potential podium, Newsham told TCF: “It’s great to be there! It’s a shame I just didn’t have the pace at the start on the other guys, but that’s just because we can’t switch the tyres on early.
“At the end of the race we were as quick as anyone. We could have gone on for another 20 laps.
“We’re missing a little trick somewhere in that department, but it’s a great race car. I was confident going into that race and we could move forward.”
The result almost matched team-mate Josh Cook‘s achievement at Rockingham, the latter having visited the podium in a season where the underdog team have shone against the established names and outfits.
Newsham added that the team have had strong pace all season, saying: “We’ve had this pace before, but not been able to show it because we’ve been marred in the mid-pack.
“Too many times something has gone wrong in qualifying, but as you can see when we get it sorted, we’re as quick as anybody. It’s a shame that the season is coming to an end now!”
Newsham starts race two of the day from 13th position, with race three of the day very much more on his mind, saying: “We had a bit of weight at race two at Donington, so we’ve had it before. I think we’re starting 13th so it’ll be difficult.
“We’ve just got to try and get inside that top 10 and try to get the reverse-grid. We’d get the weight off and start from the front, so that would be a dream.”
