Dave Newsham - BTCC

[Vince]

I'm guessing that you're aware that AmD, Dave's team is based in Essex? Not sure where exactly, but I could find out... With regards to sponsorship, a lot of our sponsors offer hospitality as incentives or prizes either to sales teams or to customers... Not sure what sort of business you're in, but maybe this would be worth considering for meetings that you can't make?
Send me your email or work address and I'll get a pack to you.

[Irisado]

Tom Onslow-Cole had the Motorbase/Airwaves BTCC 2nd drive, partnering Giovanardi, in his pocket but has opted to go sports car racing instead. I'm sure he's not afraid to take on Fabrizio, but his contract may not have allowed it - like in his days partnering Chiltern. 

One of the reasons why he left Ford if I remember correctly was that they clearly favoured Chilton for marketing reasons.  It's a shame that he has opted to go elsewhere, but he'll be an asset to sportscars.

Frank Wrathall is currently serving time at Her Majesty's Pleasure for knocking over and killing a cyclist while using a mobile phone at the wheel of his car. The Dynojet team have been sold and now form part of the new United Autosport team.

That had completely escaped my attention.  This is what I get for not buying Autosport any more.  When did this happen?  Thanks for filling me in.

It's going to be really difficult to pick a winner this year with all those world champions on the grid, but I suspect that Plato and the Dynamics duo will start as favourites, based on the quality of their equipment if nothing else.

What has the pre-season testing form been like?

[Vince]

Wrathall was sentenced a couple of months ago - he knew it was coming in fairness. He won the last race of 2012 and as the accident had only recently happened at that time, you could tell that something was up because of his muted celebrations at winning his first (and only) race. Obviously, this was at the back of his mind for all of 2013 and partly explains his loss of form. Losing his #1 mechanic to Adam Morgan probably didn't help either...

Re this season - you're right that it's going to be difficult to predict a winner - Alain Menu has been going well in the unproven Passat and Giovanardi has been complaining that he can't get to grips (literally) with the Focus. So far, last year's champ, Andrew Jordan has been setting the timing sheets alight. The Hondas of Team Dynamics are still coming to terms with their new long-wheelbase tourers and Plato seems to be having a few problems with the Triple 8 MG. My 'ones to watch' are Adam Morgan in the new Merc, Jack Goff in the Insignia and Colin Turkington in the BMW.

Re Tom Onslow-Cole - it was allegedly Tom Chilton's dad who was bank rolling the Ford team at the time with Aon. They decided to join the WTCC and TOC who had plenty of talent but not a huge budget had to look elsewhere for a drive... 

Don't forget - ITV4 at about 11am this Sunday coming... :0)   

[Irisado]

Yep, I'll be watching live (well, with a bit of recording around the Malaysian Grand Prix highlights).

Thanks for the insight too.  It may well be that Dynamics and MG aren't as well prepared as I thought then.  It will be interesting to see if Jordan can retain his title.  He'll face stiff competition as usual, but if he's setting fast times in testing, he could be the man to beat before ballast goes on for races 2 and 3 at any rate.

Morgan could be a dark horse, I agree, as could Menu and Giovanardi (if he gets his car working).  I'll be surprised if Dynamic and MG aren't towards the front sooner rather than later though.

What's Dave's hope for the weekend?  How far up the grid does he think he can get, all things being well?

[Vince]

Hey Trisado - Dave is very upbeat about this weekend coming although he doesn't doubt the high level of competition ahead. His main aim is to beat the other Ford Focus cars which are in effect his team-mates (they'll be sharing data as AmD are officially a 'satelite' team of Motorbase) and hopefully gain some points.
A podium would be great but I think that we still have quite a bit of work to do and the car needs to be tested more. During the recent Media Day at Donny, Dave was quickest in the wet however there are so many variables to consider, literally anything could happen.
This time last year, Dave was driving the Toyota Avensis with Speedworks and he had a major coming together with Rob Austin who collected him after a spin. Both cars were badly damaged...

http://t.co/3ecwuK0zZE

Copy and paste the link above for exclusive coverage of Dave at Media Day last week...

[cosworth151]

If I'm using the time converter correctly, that should be just about the time things will be finishing at Sepang. Sounds like good timing!

Best of luck to Dave & the team!      

[Vince]

If I'm using the time converter correctly, that should be just about the time things will be finishing at Sepang. Sounds like good timing!

Best of luck to Dave & the team!      

Thanks bud - appreciated... 

[Irisado]

A great first meeting.  Lots more action than the Grand Prix.  The guys at the front were, more or less, who I expected, but I was really impressed that Jordan won race two with that extra weight in such a close field.

Giovanardi also gave two interviews that were pure comedy gold.  I love his sense of humour.  I suspect that he'll move forward as the season progresses.

A 31 car field was impressive too, even though Welch didn't start any of the races.  His car wasn't ready I believe?

Dave looked to be in the thick of the action, but I suspect that the car needs a bit more work, as it didn't look all that easy to drive to me.

[Vince]

The team informed Dave a day prior to the meeting that they had decided to 'try a different' set-up... Dave was nervous about it as he had been one of the fastest in pre-season testing at the same circuit and he requested the car to be set up in a similar fashion. As expected, it was a total nightmare!
Because it involved new springs and dampers, it wasn't something that could be resolved during the weekend so they had to make the best of a bad job. Qualifying 20th on the Saturday was nowhere near where Dave was expecting to be and although he managed to make his way up to 12th during the first few laps of Race One, he clashed violently with Adam Morgan and bent his steering which resulted in a finish just outside the points. Race Two wasn't much better, however in Race Three he managed to make his way up 9th after much dueling with the cars around him. All things considered, not a bad result...
Needless to say, Dave and the team have had words with the team accepting full responsibility for the initial set-up change. The car is now being set-up as Dave wants it in time for Donington in a couple of weeks time. Fingers crossed, we'll have a better meeting...

  

[Wizzo]

Thanks for the info Vinceyboy. I watched with great interest and it doesn't take a genius to work out that all was not well. Great driving from Dave though and as you say he made the best of a bad situation.

Keep up the great work and good luck for round 2! 

[Irisado]

Thanks for the information.  That would explain why the car was hard to drive.  Ninth was a pretty good result in race three, I agree.

[John S]

Giovanardi got his team orders in before the race rather than in it then.     Dave has a deserved reputation for punching above his cars weight. 

[cosworth151]

Great picture, too. Thanks! 

[Vince]

Cheers guys - all the comments very much appreciated. Dave is very much looking forward to Donny in a couple of weeks with the car set up the way he wants it.

[Vince]

Oulton Park this weekend coming.. Looking forward to being there with my two step-sons and Dave's family.. Hope the weather holds as we'll be camping it! The team have found out that their recent lack of form when it comes to qualy is too much tyre pressure! Something as basic as that has stopped the car being further up the grid. Funny thing is, racing and the car is literally one of the fastest through the speed traps... just need to get qualy sorted.