Power Maxed Racing in the wars but still come out on top
29th September 2015
Power Maxed Racing showed their pace at the latest round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone this weekend. Dave Newsham handed the team their best qualifying result to date, scooped a 4th place finish and teammate Josh Cook yet again clinched the Jack Sears Trophy in what was a bruising weekend for the rookie BTCC team.
Both Dave Newsham and Josh Cook showed great pace in the Free Practice sessions on the long Silverstone circuit, with long straights suiting the Chevrolet Cruze saloon. After a cracking qualifying session, Newsham started race 1 on the 3rd row of the grid, surrounded by BTCC Championship title winners. Both Chevies made good starts with Newsham in 5th place into the first corner and Cook fighting his way through the mid pack, avoiding contact from the early retirees.
Early laps and the medium tyre compound saw Newsham keeping pace with the Honda of Shedden. Both drivers focused and head down maintaining race position. Lap 17 saw Newsham make a move up the inside of the BMW of Tordoff, moving cleanly into 4th place, to then set about chasing the Honda for 3rd but unfortunately ran out of laps crossing the line in a season-best 4th, with Cook 14th.
Under sun-filled skies, it was quickly time for the second race of the day with both Power Maxed Racing Chevrolets on the soft tyre compound and Newsham carrying 48kg of success ballast. Lights out and solid starts from both drivers ensured a clean damage free first lap with Newsham into 14th and Cook 17th. Cook battled with his fellow ex Clio rival Bushell to gain 16th. Newsham pushed on ahead of his team mate, sadly a technical issue caused him to pull aside ending his race. Cook continued his charge gaining positions over the next few laps, after some great side by side action with Ingram, Cook slipped past at Brooklands to gain 12th place over the line. Unfortunately, Dave was unable to make it out for race 3 because of an engine issue.
Cook started 14th with the reverse grid mixing up the pack.
After avoiding contact earlier in the race, Cook wasn’t able to escape being pushed out wide by another car, causing him to drop back several places only to be hit again. Regaining control, Cook started on his comeback from 25th over the remaining laps to cross the line in 16th place.
Adam Weaver, Team principal commented, “It’s great to see the work we are doing to develop the car paying off, Dave showed his experience and skill to give us our highest ever qualifying position and drove well to give us a 4th place finish. Josh also delivered the Jack Sears again so smiles all round.”
Weaver continued, “It has been a bit of a manic weekend for many teams, us included, with plenty of contact and some big accidents resulting in a high attrition, still it is nice to have a tough weekend and still come out with so many positives.”
The BTCC concludes in 2 weeks time on the 10/11 October at Brands Hatch with full coverage available on ITV4.
Track Days / Test Days / MotorsportDays.com
