Power Maxed Racing has confirmed that Dave Newsham will return in place of Kelvin Fletcher at Rockingham this weekend (27/28 August) as Fletcher is expecting the birth of his first child.

Newsham will compete in rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at the Midlands circuit, driving Fletcher’s PMR Chevrolet Cruze.

At Knockhill, the Inverness-based racer notched a trio of points finishes after qualifying P10 on his return. A race one finish of seventh was a real highlight – Power Maxed Racing's highest-placed finish of the season and a first top ten this year.

"The response before I got to the track was overwhelming on social media, and after I arrived, well it went to another level," said Newsham, speaking after his return to the BTCC on home soil at Knockhill. "I didn't think anyone would really miss me, but I couldn't have been more wrong, thankfully. I can't wait to get back in the car at Rockingham."

"Longer term, I want to do everything I can to get back to the BTCC. The chance to have another weekend in the championship I love is perfect though we will all be thinking of Kelvin and his partner, awaiting some happy news."

Adam Weaver, Power Maxed Racing Team Principal said: "We will miss Kelvin at Rockingham, but it is great to work with Dave again. Seeing him perform at Knockhill was a delight and it has helped with yet more development of the car that will benefit Kelvin for the final two rounds."

Team HARD boss Tony Gilham will step into the Toyota Avensis of Michael Caine this weekend at Rockingham (27/28 August) following the withdrawal of the Newmarket racer from the event due to a back injury.

The 37-year-old Team Principal competed at the final two events last season, with a best of 15th spot at Silverstone, and is looking forward to stepping back into Dunlop British Touring Car Championship machinery, while ruing his driver's misfortune.

"Michael's had a flare up of an old back injury," said Gilham. "It had previously been operated on and corrected, but he felt pain in race one back at Knockhill.

"It's a shame for Michael and ourselves but it's a long-term project with him and his sponsors as we look to 2017 and beyond."

"I'll be stepping into the breech for this weekend – you could definitely say I've been thrown in at the deep end!"

"These guys have been racing and testing all season and I haven't been out in a racing car for the best part of 12 months.

"I raced the last two events of last season at Silverstone and Brands Hatch but since then I've done nothing.

"It'll definitely be tricky but I'm looking forward to it – I always look forward to getting back into a racing car, especially a British Touring Car, and going racing again."

Competing in a car born of his own stable, Gilham is hoping to do the outfit proud. In Jake Hill and Michael Epps, he has a couple of quick young talents in the fold to point the way.

"Driving a touring car in my colours is just going to be fantastic and I hope I can do myself, the car and the team some sort of justice.

"It'll certainly be a weekend that's a bit of a learning process for me. I'll be working closely with our guys – Mike (Epps) and Jake (Hill) – to try and glean as much as I can before going out competitively in quali. They've been on it this season so they'll be a real help.

"It would be nice to notch a point maybe, I'll see what I can do. We'll find out if there's still a bit of life in the old dog yet!"

I love Knockhill! It’s my favourite circuit in the UK next to Thruxton, and although it favours the cars driven by the rear wheels, off the back of our podium result at Snetterton I was excited to see what we could do.

With so many rear-wheel drive cars on the grid this year we thought that anything in the top ten would be a really good effort but after qualifying P9, my best qualifying position of the year so far and a best ever for Handy Motorsport, I still wasn’t happy. I didn’t feel like I had done my best, there was more in it and that takes away some satisfaction. It’s a funny thing. For me personally, I can give it everything and extract the maximum out of the car but if the car’s only good enough for 15^th I will be happy with my work. Equally, if you win a race through pure luck its nowhere near as satisfying as knowing you really earned it.

Read all of Rob's Knockhill blog over at hiqonline.co.uk.

Chasing pack poised as Sam Tordoff returns to BTCC summit

Entries at: PMR Facebook

• John McGuinness swaps Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP for BTCC Honda Civic Type R
• Gordon Shedden shows off his riding skills aboard Honda Racing’s TT winning machine

What happens when you pit double Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Champion Gordon Shedden against 23-time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness, head to head on each other’s race-winning machinery? Dunlop and Honda hosted the unique event at Scotland’s Knockhill circuit on Monday, which saw Gordon swap his race-winning Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type R for John’s Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP for 30 laps of the Scottish track. 

The two vehicles are very different – the number of wheels aside – but the similarities are the brand of chassis and tyre manufacturer – Honda and Dunlop. The sportsmen are different too, but both Gordon and John are at the peak of their sport, both capable of using the tyres to their maximum to achieve the best lap times. Whether that’s in a 27 lap race, over 21 miles against 31 other cars on a smooth race track, or a single 37.73-mile lap of the daunting Isle of Man TT Mountain course, held on closed public roads.

Swapping machines is no mean feat – to get competitive lap times, they both needed to learn the car and bike respectively in just a handful of laps. During that time, they also had to adjust to the very different tyres that were the only thing between their vehicle and the tarmac.

Tyre Talk – the differences

• Size matters – the contact patch on a bike is tiny compared to that of the car, just the size of a credit card. At around 3-4 times smaller it has to take a power to weight ratio quite differently (close to 1 for a motorcycle against close 0.25 for a BTCC). And that is just for the rear tyre. The front contact patch on a motorcycle is yet again even smaller and needs to cope with the bike slowing at close to 1G deceleration.
• Wheely important stuff – the BTCC wheel is 18 inches in diameter – an inch bigger than that of the TT rear wheel, although the overall tyre diameter is actually bigger on a motorcycle. This means the tyre mechanics are different.
• A bit on the side – Gordon needed to rely on the side walls of the tyres on the Fireblade, while John’s Civic Type R was (mainly) squarely on the base of the tyres. The motorcycle tyre will deform more in the sidewall and tread area to key into the asphalt and generate grip whereas the BTCC tyre will mainly deform in the sidewall area to withstand the weight and get the support required.
• Under pressure –tyre pressures vary. There’s up to 1.1 bar of difference between the bike and car pressures to get the best performance – double the pressure in the front tyres when cold for the bike compared to the car. A motorcycle tyre will run between 1.5 bar to 1.6 bar hot, whereas a BTCC tyre will be aimed to run at 1.85-1.95 bar hot. It may not seem such a big difference for most people but Gordon or John would have spotted that change of tyre performance with less than 0.1 bar difference!
• The magic ingredients and construction – While some ingredients or at least concepts may be tried in one discipline and transferred into another, the secrets inside the tyres are very different – but they have to stay secret.

John McGuinness: “It was brilliant; I didn’t want to get out of the car to be honest. The first session all happened really fast but then I settled down into a groove. The whole mindset changes when you swap from what you know to something new, and I was a bit nervous, but we’re all racers and just want to go fast.

“It’s hard to see the apex, you’re strapped in tight, and it’s quite warm in there. You’re breathing in engine fumes and there are lots of rattles and bangs, it’s such a different world but I was shocked by how nice and precise it was. Dunlop put on some soft, sticky, amazing grippy tyres on the Honda Civic Type R and they gave me so much confidence to go fast.

“My Honda Fireblade had the same tyres we used at the TT where we did a 132.6mph average lap and we brought it here and did some riding on those same tyres which is testament to Dunlop and how good their product is. You know we put our lives in the hands of a few things, but tyres are such an important part of the package.”

Gordon Shedden: “It was absolutely out of this world, you maybe build a picture of what you think it’s like in your head, but nothing compares to it when you’re out there. It’s phenomenally fast but once you get used to it you learn to relax and get more confident. It was an absolute privilege to have a go.

“It was the first time I’ve ever ridden on a slick tyre and I cannot believe the grip that the contact patch the size of a credit card can actually give you, it’s just absolutely mind blowing. The speed obviously is as you’d expect, the world passes by at a million miles an hour. I can only imagine what it’s like going round the TT course, and John is welcome to stay on that!

“Each stint I started to relax more and get more confidence in the grip that was available. The brakes on the race car are fantastic with four big slick tyres to hold the thing on, so you wouldn’t believe the bike would have the stopping capability that it does.”

 

British Touring Car Championship icon Jack Sears is to be laid to rest today in Norfolk following his passing last week.

'Gentleman Jack’ has been a popular and important part of the BTCC right throughout its near 60 year history, having seen it evolve from the British Saloon Car Championship which he won in its inaugural year of 1958 and again in 1963.

In recent seasons MSA British Touring Car Championship rookies have challenged for the 'Jack Sears Trophy', with which Jack helped to nurture and support the next crop of BTCC stars.

The entire British Touring Car Championship community paused this past weekend at Knockhill for a minute's silence to mark the passing of the series' inaugural champion.

Everyone in the BTCC sends their condolences, thoughts and prayers to Jack’s family and friends.

It was a positive weekend north of the border for Maximum Motorsport as Stewart Lines achieved the team's best result in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship with 17th in round 20 from Fife's Knockhill circuit.

The green-and-black liveried Ford Focus qualified 29th on Saturday, leaving Lines with a quite the task on his hands at what is a notoriously tight and tricky circuit to make progress on. Despite this, the Midlander did manage to move forward.

In race one, Lines held station as Ollie Jackson in the AmD Tuning.com looked to make a move after the S3 had dispatched Mark Howards VW CC off the line.

The Focus was demoted by Jackson after a four-lap battle before contact for Aron Smith handed a spot back and Lines jumped Matt Simpson on lap five to find his eventual finishing spot – 25th for race one.

Further progress came in race two with the Sutton Coldfield outfit electing to use the soft compound tyre. Contact with Jeff Smith into turn one demoted the Maximum machine down to 28th, sparking a spirited fightback.

Lines took advantage of scuffling up ahead as Martin Depper and Warren Scott tripped and found themselves in the gravel in two separate incidents before the safety car was deployed.

On the restart, Howard was caught napping by Lines with a well-timed move and defended the BKR man's advances as he tried to retaliate. With a near full race distance still to come, Lines got his head down and focussed on the cars ahead. Ash Sutton, Ollie Jackson, Matt Simpson, Hunter Abbott and Alex Martin were reeled in and eventually in his sights. By lap twenty, he'd passed all but the latter.

In the closing stages, Lines did make it past the Dextra Racing man and ended a strong showing 17th – passing Dan Welch on track and making up more places through drama for Tom Ingram and a pair of cars in contact up ahead.

Race three, and a P17 grid slot, offered up the opportunity of maiden points but contact with Alex Martin put pay to those hopes, a recovery drive to 22nd was scant consolation.

Lines was pleased with steps made over the Knockhill weekend, and is aiming to score points over the final three events of the season in what is an improving Ford Focus.

"I do like Knockhill and the linkup with Welch Motorsport and a new number one mechanic coming in, in Les White, it's been a breath of fresh air recently," said Lines.

"I've felt like I've driven well at Croft and Snetterton and I was on it all weekend barring qualifying – I felt quite racy.

"I was up there on pace with a fair few guys who have normally been just a little bit ahead of us, like Team HARD and the couple of Subarus in and around us, so that was a big plus and I was pleased with that. We think we've got the car working a bit better in the past few.

"Race two was fantastic for us and heading into race three, but for contact with Alex Martin, we were looking like we had a chance of points and that was definitely our aim.

"The signs are good. We're getting towards the edge of what this kit can do ahead of us switching to the new RML parts for next season. We're not looking at finding big chunks of time anymore, it's just little bits that we can try and look for that can hopefully add up.

"I like Rockingham, Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP. The're all places I've been to and won at each in club racing. Hopefully over those last three weekends we can get a few points on the board.

"For the size of operation we're running we're happy. We've had success in the VW Cup and we feel we can bring some of knowhow into the BTCC effort. People underestimate the challenge and the balance you need to have in terms of quick machinery as well as a quick driver but we're improving.

"It was a three-year deal for us so we're making progress that I'm happy with and we're getting better every week."

Ollie Jackson topped Knockhill's Dunlop #ForeverForward running with 17 places gained over the weekend but West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard retained his overall lead despite a mixed three rounds in Scotland.

The weekend started well for AmD Tuning.com with Jackson’s Audi S3 showing pace through free practice, but his hopes of converting that into a strong qualifying performance were ended by an off into the gravel at the Arnold Clark Chicane; an off that left him at the back of the grid for race one.

Jackson worked his way forwards from 31^st on the grid to take the flag in 23^rd spot in the opener and was hopeful of building on that in race two before being forced to retire with an exhaust issue – forcing retirement on safety grounds and leaving him to battle his way through the field again in race three.

With the issue fixed for race three and a series of revisions made to the car, the Audi was at its most competitive and, avoiding some chaos around him, Ollie fought his way forwards into the top 20 but fell just short of a points finish.

“I have to hold my hands up in qualifying as I made a stupid mistake and have been kicking myself for it ever since,” he said. “I’ve never gone off in qualifying before but I was just pushing too hard on cold tyres, and I felt so bad for the team after the work they had put in in recent weeks.

“Ultimately, that played a big part in how race day panned out and having made up places in race one, I was hoping to do the same in race two until I was forced to retire. Unfortunately it meant we were too far back to really make the most of the improvements we found for race three, when the car was at its best and we had some good pace.

“That’s reflected in the fact that we came from the back to finish inside the top 20 but unfortunately, it’s a weekend where we’ve not been able to secure the end result we deserved.”

With seven events completed, the results and standings are as follows – Drivers’ Championship leader Rob Collard still heads the pack:

Dunlop #ForeverForward drivers of the weekend

1 Ollie Jackson 17
2 Martin Depper 16
3 Adam Morgan 15

Dunlop #ForeverForward overall standings

1 Rob Collard 107
2 Martin Depper 97
3 Rob Austin 81