Newsham expecting strong races after great qualifying

Team ES Racing driver Dave Newsham lines up third on the grid for today’s races at Snetterton, his best qualifying result since the opening round of the Championship at Brands Hatch, and believes the S2000 Vauxhall Vectra will be a threat.

After a few difficult weekends, Newsham believes the team are now on top of the issues they’ve been experiencing, and it’s car is back to its pole-grabbing form.

“We found there was a problem with the shock absorbers after the last round,” said Newsham to TouringCarTimes. “One of the shock absorbers wasn’t working at all, and the left front wasn’t too good either, so we think that’s been our problem for the last couple of rounds.”
“We have (also) had a few engine issues but they’re behind us. The car feels like it did at Brands Hatch and Donington, it just feels great to drive again…here we are bang on the money again, half a tenth off pole!”

Newsham is the top placed S2000 spec car in the field, with Lea Wood the next highest placed S2000 car in the identical Vauxhall Vectra ahead of Tom Onslow-Cole’s BMW 320si.

“I didn’t think an S2000 car would still be able to compete against the NGTCs – so the Vectras’ are obviously going well around here.”

The 2010 Renault Clio Cup UK champion believes his Triple Eight-built Vauxhall Vectra will be a strong competitor in today’s races after a good progress made in the free practice sessions.
“We did a long run in second practice and (our laps were) all really good, in the he ’58s. Looking through the TSL data I don’t think anyone else has been able to string together as many ’58s in – so we should have really good race pace.”
“We haven’t had three decent race finishes yet all season, so that’s what I really want, three decent solid results.”