BTCC Weekend Superstar: Dave Newsham

The Rockingham weekend was the sort of event where anything could and did happen. From torrential rain in qualifying to bright sunshine for the races, new winners and epic charges through the field, it all happened last time out. Amongst all of the goings on, one man in particular stood out. Dave Newsham. Here's why.

Having missed the first eighteen races of the season Newsham came out fighting at Knockhill but he's Scottish, it's his home circuit, you'd expect him to be strong there but to continue that pace into Rockingham is really rather impressive. Rockigham was only Newsham's second drive of the car with the new parts and his first drive of it in the wet but despite this, he qualified an excellent thirteenth and was only a few tenths down on teammate Hunter Abbott who has much more experience with the car.

Strong and consistent drives in all three races saw Newsham have two very strong finishes and if it weren't for contact in race three, it would have been three strong finishes. Race one would see Newsham taking part in a fantastic scrap with fellow Scott Aiden Moffat as well as the two BMWs of Jack Goff and Sam Tordoff with Newsham eventually winning out over Tordoff by just over two tenths of a second. This resulted in ninth place which equals Power Maxed Racing's second best finish this season.

Race two would see Newsham lose out to Tordoff and Moffat but the Scott was able to hang on to eleventh. In the closing laps of the race, Newsham would start to catch reigning champion Gordon Shedden. He threw everything imaginable at his fellow Scott but Shedden was having none of it and Newsham eventually crossed the line just over half a second behind him. Eleventh place in the end for Newsham was still a great result and he scored valuable points for the team.

Seven laps into race three and contact with Ash Sutton brought Newsham's race weekend to an end, costing him any chance of another good result. Across the Knockhill and Rockingham races, Newsham has certainly proved that come rain or shine, he is still a highly competitive touring car driver. If he can get a full time drive next season he could be a serious threat for podiums and potentially for race wins. Sticking to the present though and Newsham is definitely worthy of being our weekend superstar.

#btcc