AmDTuning turn the corner as BTCC battle resumes

The AmDTuning.com team will resume battle in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship this weekend at Snetterton, with hopes high of 'turning the corner' as it seeks to challenge towards the sharp end of the grid.The West Thurrock-based team has shown flashes of front-running speed with its new NGTC-spec Ford Focus in the five meetings run so far, although the potential of the car has yet to be fully realised in terms of results on track.Inverness-based racer Dave Newsham had hoped that the introduction of a new front end on the Focus would lead to celebrations in the final event prior to the summer break at Croft five weeks ago, only for an on-track clash to ruin his chances of a strong result on the weekend where he started his 100th BTCC race.Dave will now seek to bounce back from that disappointment at the venue where he claimed his maiden BTCC victory back in 2012.With the Focus having gone well at the Norfolk circuit in the past, hopes are high of a solid start to the second half of the campaign, with Dave saying he was clear on what needed to be done when the team hits the track this weekend."I think Snetterton could be the meeting where we turn the corner in terms of results," he said. "We’ve been able to learn a lot about the car since the season opener at Brands Hatch, and the new aero package that we debuted at Croft before the summer break improved the performance of the car."I know I’ve said it before, but the key thing for us this weekend is to improve our qualifying performance, as we have to make sure we don’t end up in a position that puts us in the middle of any trouble."Starting inside the top ten has to be our target because from there, I think we would be able to push forwards and hopefully benefit from the reverse grid in race three to work towards the podium positions. We’ve shown that the car is strong in the races, and our pace on Sundays has been good, but we have to make sure we aren’t starting too far back to benefit from it."Snetterton is one of my favourite circuits on the calendar and is one that I have happy memories of, given it was the place where I took my first win in the BTCC. Hopefully we’ll be able to create more good memories this time around."Team boss Shaun Hollamby said he too was keen to see the team realise its potential on track in the sixth meeting of the year."We know we have a strong car and should have scored more points than we have done so far this season," he said. "We’re going into the weekend at Snetterton looking to try and put that right, and the main target is to try and have a trouble free weekend and put some decent points on the board."Qualifying has been our Achilles heel so far this season and it has prevented us from really showing what we can do on race day, when the car has always been strong."The revisions we made at Croft proved to be a step in the right direction, even though the incident Dave got caught up in the second race meant we couldn’t really show it. We go to Snetterton in confident mood and I hope we can come away from the weekend with reason to cheer."


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