Dave Newsham on the pace with AmD Tuning Ford

Despite ending the test early at Brands Hatch last week in the barriers at Clearways, Dave Newsham was comfortable with his pace in the Ford Focus ST, built by Motorbase Performance and now being run by AmD Tuning this year, the Essex team’s first Next Generation Touring Car-spec car.

46-year-old Newsham, going in to his fourth season in the Championship, has moved across from Speedworks Motorsport in an amicable split for budget reasons. The 2010 Renault Clio Cup UK champion was immediately quick in the team’s new acquisition, the Motorbase-developed Ford Focus ST, which will be powered by a Mountune built 2.0 litre turbocharged engine.

“We’ve come along way since the start of the day,” said Newsham to TouringCarTimes. “I think we’ve finished a little bit more than two-tenths up on (Fabrizio) Giovanardi, but it’s just a shame I’ve done that,” he added, referring to the off at Clearways with 30 minutes of the test to go.

“I think we could have got in the 48s today,” added Newsham, whose best lap was reported by the team to be 49.0. “We’ve only used one set of tyres while the other guys keep piling tyres on, so when it comes to the first round when we’ve got more tyres to play with we should hopefully be right in there. We’re on a tight budget, so to be consistently doing 49.2s with old tyres, I don’t think we’re too far away.”