Knockhill Race Three: Newsham leads the field in Knockhill's final race

After taking his maiden BTCC win last time out at Snetterton, Team ES Racing racer Dave Newsham drove to his second reverse race victory having started from pole position in the third and final race of the day on the Scottish Knockhill circuit.

     A showering of rain, plus a scramble to the grid after a hefty start-line incident in the Ginetta GT Supercup, resulting in a lengthy red flag period, delayed proceedings. The rain left the track greasy, so the choice of tyres for the race would be crucial. All but Chris James started on slicks, with the ES Racing team principal going with wet rears and slick fronts.
     After serious damage after a shunt in race two, Dan Welch’s team had done a sterling job to get the Proton Persona out ready for the final race. Dan joined the rear of the pack on the warm up lap. Despite getting out onto the grid and starting the warm-up lap, Jason Plato’s weekend went from bad to worse, when a turbo issue forced him to head for the pit lane, resulting in him retiring from the race on the spot.
     The start of the race saw Dave Newsham fly off the line in his ES Racing Vectra, with the eBay Motors BMW of Nick Foster relieving Aron Smith of his fifth starting slot. Andrew Jordan remained in fourth position, with Pirtek Racing team mate Jeff Smith in second place, having too made an excellent start. The dicing for position behind allowed Dave Newsham to maintain a gap between him and his competitors.
     A slide from Andy Neate saw him re-join the track a couple of places down to where he originally started, as Matt Neal battled his way through to third place behind Jeff Smiths’ Honda Civic. A lap later and Andy Neate was into the pit lane with an issue, and re-joined the group a lap down.
     The top-ten were all now racing very close together on the Scottish circuit, and whilst Paul O’Neill and Aron Smith were battling with each other for track position, a daring move from Nick Foster saw Shedden having to take a trip across the damp grass, with his Honda’s radiator now filled with a mound of earth and mud.
     Meanwhile up front, Dave Newsham had increased his lead to 4.2 seconds after seven racing laps amidst the chaos as Gordon Shedden came straight into the pits and retired his Honda Racing Civic. Jeff Smith was still running in a solid second place, with Matt Neal filling the ICD sponsored Honda’s mirrors with every passing lap.

Jeff Smith defended from Matt Neal to achieved his first podium place
finish for Pirtek Racing.
Picture Credit: Marc Waller.

The two eBay BMWS of Rob Collard and Tom Onslow-Cole, who had both had very successful days in the first two races, were now in tenth and eighth place respectively. Mat Jackson, who retired from the first race after exhaust fumes filled his NGTC Focus, was running in eleventh place, albeit still struggling with understeer.
     With the skies darkening, but no signs of rainfall, the drivers behind race leader Dave Newsham were all quicker over a lap than Newsham himself. Could the ES driver hang on to his lead in front of his home crowd before the end? With the half of the race still remaining, Matt Neal was making his intentions clear – he was looking for a way past Jeff Smith for second, and would fight for the position before the race was through.
     Dan Welch and Lea Wood, who had both had somewhat disappointing weekends, were battling and squeezing each other for track position, whilst the first black and white warning flag of the race was shown to Tom Onslow-Cole for exceeding track limits.
     A pack of Honda’s led the field from second to fourth, with Lea Wood now mixing with the two eBay BMWs of Collard and Onslow-Cole.  Dave Newsham was controlling the race, and wouldn’t be giving up a second victory in as many meetings without a fight. Rob Collard and Adam Morgan were now battling for track position, which handed an advantage to Mat Jackson who managed to squeeze past to take tenth.
     The pressure was now on for Jeff Smith, who was looking set to take the first podium finish in his BTCC career. Matt Neal had his lights on, and made sure Smith knew he was there to make his move should he make a mistake.  With the amount of laps dwindling, Dave Newsham’s lead was starting to sharply decrease, with the gap now down to 1.9 second between himself and Smith.

Dave Newsham celebrates after taking ES Racing's second victory at Knockhill
Picture Credit: Marc Waller.

Matt Neal was also shown the black and white warning flag, this time with only a couple of laps left to run. Neal was on his final warning for exceeding track limits, so he had to be wary approaching the chequered flag. Andrew Jordan didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to grab the final podium position, and was fighting with Neal on the final lap. Ultimately, Jordan had to settle for fourth place.
    But it was Dave Newsham who drove to his second victory in the championship having driven flawlessly throughout. Jeff Smith also had a superb race, and ended the day with his first ever BTCC podium in second, with Matt Neal having to settle for third.
     Paul O’Neill had another good race in Tony Hughes’ Toyota Avensis, making it Speedworks Motorsport’s most successful outing this year. Dan Welch recovered from his back-end start to finish twelfth, with Robb Holland in fourteenth – a third points finish for Team HARD – and Neate a lap down in fifteenth.

Smiles all round: Dave Newsham, Jeff Smith and Matt Neal took to
the podium in the final race of the day.
Picture Credit: Marc Waller.

With four weeks until the next round at Rockingham, Matt Neal leads the championship standings by ten points to team mate Gordon Shedden, with Jason Plato in third and down thirty six points. Having come into Knockhill only trailing with minus ten, Knockhill will be a weekend for the KX Momentum racer to forget. Andrew Jordan lies in fourth, only four points behind Jason Plato, and still leading the Independents standings ahead of Rob Collard.

It was a dramatic day at Knockhill, and the stewards decided that a number of actions should be taken on a number of incidents that happened throughout the day…
     Redstone’s Racing Aron Smith was fined £500 and handed three points on his racing license after an incident with Jason Plato in race one. Also from race one, Gordon Shedden was given an official reprimand and two penalty points due to an incident with Aron Smith, whilst Dan Welch was handed a £500 fine and three penalty points after an incident with Jeff Smith. From race two, Chris James received a £500 fine and had two penalty points added to his race license after an incident with Dan Welch.

Final Results:

1. Dave Newsham
2. Jeff Smith
3. Matt Neal
4. Andrew Jordan
5. Tom Onslow-Cole
6. Paul O'Neill
7. Nick Foster
8. Aron Smith
9. Rob Collard
10. Mat Jackson
11. Adam Morgan
12. Dan Welch
13. Lea Wood
14. Robb Holland
15. Andy Neate

Fastest Lap: Tom Onslow-Cole - Lap 7 - 53.321