Dave Newsham in test for Tony Gilham Racing at Croft

Dave Newsham completed two days of testing with Tony Gilham Racing earlier this week at Croft, driving the team’s Volkswagen CC.
“Once I’d got used to the fact the Passat is left hand drive it felt very good – even though it was unfortunately wet which is par for the course at this time of year. The balance of the car was excellent, and I was impressed with the mechanics and the team in general. I feel very sure you’ll be seeing me on the 2014 BTCC grid, but exactly where remains to be seen!” said Newsham

Newsham raced a Toyota Avensis for Speedworks Motorsport this year, finishing tenth overall with fourth as best result.
“I’m keeping my options open for next year and am still in negotiations with Speedworks, but when I was invited down to this test it was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss,” said Newsham.

While the test days were hit by rain, team owner Tony Gilham was pleased with the performance of Newsham.
“It was hard to make a real judgement in terms of speed because we didn’t get any dry running. Dave loved driving the car and the test worked for both of us. He got to compare another NGTC car and we got to have another extremely experienced driver in one of our cars. We’re talking to Dave about next season but absolutely nothing is decided yet,” said Gilham.

Warren Scott was present during the test days, also driving a Volkswagen CC.
”It was massively productive though and it was our first proper test as a team. 2013 was the year we built the cars and now we plan to really develop them and get the right drivers on board ahead of 2014.

”We obviously hope to win the championship one day so now we just want to keep improving the cars and make sure we get the right driver line-up, so we can challenge the big teams on a consistent basis next year. We hope to be testing at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch in the next month so we’re pushing hard and making sure we’re fully prepared for the new season,” said Gilham.