AmD Tuning’s Dave Newsham endured a disappointing Rockingham weekend in the British Touring Car Championship, taking just the one points finish at the circuit.
Newsham went into the eighth meeting of the season on a high after having scored his first podium of the season at home in the previous event at Knockhill.
However the weekend proved to be tough from the start, with the Scot managing just 20th position in qualifying on Saturday.
Newsham and his Essex-based team made changes overnight to try and improve his Ford Focus, but the 46-year-old continued to struggle with understeer in the first two races of the day, finishing outside the points in 16th and 18th places respectively.
“Qualifying was disappointing but we made some big changes for race one and they didn’t have the desired effect,” said Newsham. “For some reason, we really struggled with understeer all day and need to get back to base and look at the reasons why.”
Changes to his car proved beneficial for race three, where Newsham was able to make his way from 18th on the grid to finish in a creditable tenth position and take home more valuable points.
“Contact early on damaged the car in race two and it was hard to see if the revisions we’d made had worked,” added Newsham. “Although things were better in race three after we made more changes to the car, I was struggling for grip through turn five and losing lots of time. I could keep pace with the guys in front through the rest of the lap, but then lost it all in that part of the circuit.
“It’s disappointing after Knockhill as we hoped to get three strong finishes here, but at least we could end the weekend with some solid points in the final race.”
Team boss Shaun Hollamby says he is disappointed with the weekend on the whole, but drew attention to race three as a positive from the weekend.
“Dave drove well in race three and did a good job on the soft tyres,” said Hollamby. “We were just losing out at one part of the circuit, but with the way it went this weekend, I think it’s clear that we need to come and test here before we return next year!
“While it’s disappointing to only have a single points scoring finish this weekend, the top ten is our target so I’m pleased we achieved that in race three and it was a good way to end things.
“Our lap times haven’t been far off throughout the day despite the handling issues we’ve had, but position is key as I’ve said before, and we were in the wrong position after qualifying.
“However, things will be better next time out at Silverstone and we’ll be in a stronger position.”