Dave Newsham vows to “get stuck in” from the back

Dave Newsham has vowed to “get stuck in” on race day after an early incident put him out of qualifying at Brands Hatch.

Newsham and the BTC Norlin team went into the opening qualifying session of the new BTCC season expected to push towards the top ten, but would ultimately come away disappointed.

Whilst team-mate Chris Smiley could at least post a time en-route to 28th on the grid, Newsham would fail to log a time of his own after putting his car off into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend early on.

It means he will have plenty to do on race day from the very back of the grid.

“I’m absolutely gutted for the whole team,” he said. “They have all been absolutely brilliant so far and they didn’t deserve what has happened today; they deserve so much more.

“I hold my hands up that I didn’t have enough heat in my tyres when I went off. It was going to be my first lap in anger and I just locked up at the worst place. Once the car got on the marbles, I was a passenger.

“It was a tough session and Chris is also near the back, which isn’t where we should be. We should have been up towards the top ten and need to get stuck in on race day to get back there.”