Dave Newsham: “We could win a race today”

Power Maxed Racing’s Dave Newsham believes a strong second race could set him up for a reverse grid win at Silverstone, after netting his best result of the year in the opening encounter.

Newsham steered his Chevrolet Cruze to fourth in this morning’s race, after challenging Honda Yuasa Racing’s Gordon Shedden for a podium spot in the final laps.

However, Newsham was only able to set the 13th best laptime on the standard tyre and will carry 48kg of ballast on the soft tyre in the next race. And the 2010 Clio Cup champion says how the next race pans out will define the rest of his weekend.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Newsham said: “The car’s been mega all weekend. I was confident we could do well in qualifying and was targeting the top six. In the race we didn’t really have the pace early on when the tyres were at their best, but the pace later on was quicker than anybody’s I think.

“We need to be inside the top 10 [in the second race] and be in with a chance of the reverse grid, because if we could do that we could win a race today. We’ve got to try and be in there otherwise we’ll be mid-pack for the rest of the day.

“The car doesn’t feel that quick down the straights, but we just seem to be going really well. I think we could have done another 20 laps on those tyres, which bodes well for the softs.”