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A View From The Driver's Seat: Thruxton review - Don't look back in anger

By Dave Newsham / MJP Media | 8 May 2013

Excess baggage, substantial changes and wheel-to-wheel action - Dave Newsham looks back at the Thruxton weekend.

Thruxton in Hampshire is the furthest circuit on the calendar from Inverness, but certainly one of my favourites. It's also by far the fastest circuit in the UK. Needless to say, the journey would be in the form of a big orange jet. Problems started at the airport when my 20kg kit bag with all my racing gear for the weekend turned out to be 22kg. Rather than pay an extra £40 I decided to wear my weekend's wardrobe. Every penny counts in this game! I bet I looked a right wally in my helmet.

Free practice went reasonably well. I was probably one of the few drivers hoping to welcome the promised rain as it would be my first opportunity to try the car on wet weather tyres. There were three drivers who managed to scrape quick laps in on slicks before the rain finally came. I finished the session P4 and quickest by a chunk of all the wet tyre runners. This was very encouraging wet pace we had in the car.

For the first time this season, turbo boost adjustments would came into force this weekend based on lap times of the previous two events. With the exception of the works cars, all other cars in the field have had large turbo boost increases. Unfortunately, as the Toyotas in the hands of Wrathall, Morgan and me have been quick, our boost increase was minimal. At this very fastest circuit this was hurting us. Qualifying, the car was a bit of a handful but I managed to qualify in P9. Whilst not happy to be so far down, we were just one place behind Frank Wrathall, who usually gets the best out of his Toyota in qualifying, and a few places ahead of the other Toyotas, so it looked like we were all struggling.

Race one, making a good start I completed the first lap in P7. On lap three I recorded the fourth fastest lap time of the race and things were looking good however by mid race I was struggling to hang on to the leaders and falling in to the clutches of the chasing pack. My tyres were finished and I was not a happy bunny. I did however hang on to P8 at the finish and top Toyota. For race two, substantial changes were made to my car to improve balance and tyre wear. Starting from 8th it was half way round the first lap that Aron Smith spun his Ford right in front of me and I had to back off, losing me a position. We progressed well and I was all over Colin Turkington who was using his experience, placing his car exactly where he needed to keep me behind, however this fighting allowed a large gaggle of cars to line up behind me. I passed Colin twice, only for him to get me back on the way out of the corner. Lap 13, and getting a little frustrated, I got a run on him heading up the fastest part of the circuit at more than 150mph - we were banging wheels as I tried to squeeze him and he tried to push me wide. Braking as late as I could into the chicane, I was on the outside and on the marbles. The car went sideways and I missed the first part of the chicane, rejoining the track in P13. On the final lap I passed Rob Collard to finish a very disappointing P12! If I could have made one of those passes stick, I would have been on the front row for the final reverse grid race.

Race three and again big changes were made to the car. This is what is costing us as while others are fine tuning their cars, we are basically testing and experimenting as we race. Not easy for a racing driver who needs to have faith and confidence in his car, as for the first part of each race I am learning the car again. Another solid start to the race from 12th on the grid and by lap three I was up to P10. Although we seemed to have a little less grip, the balance of the car was much better and easier to drive on the limit. As the race went on I noticed that my lap times were better too, however it was a bit of a lonely race as I spent much of it not able to catch the Ford of Mat Jackson ahead, but was comfortably moving clear of Colin Turkington behind - nice to see him in my mirrors for once! With two laps to go, I was catching Sam Tordoff's MG, crossing the finish line on his bumper to take P9.

A disappointing weekend where my Speedworks Toyota wasn't quite on the pace, no matter what we did. There is a five week gap until the next round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park. We will be testing prior to this to try and unlock more speed from the car. The team and I now know what its strengths and weaknesses are so we should be able to move forward with testing.

Thanks for your support guys - good times are just round the corner for our great Speedworks team, so please keep your faith in us.

Dave #17

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