Newsham reboots title challenge on wet Croft weekend

Callum Newsham reignited his TCR UK championship challenge by winning two of the three races at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire on a weekend of challenging weather conditions (13-14 July). IN treacherously slippery conditions for Race 1 on Saturday, Newsham started his JH Racing-run i30 N TCR from pole position but was shuffled back to third through the opening corners. However, he regained one spot before the end of lap one and then began to close down the more than two second gap to the leader.

He methodically ate into the advantage and began to search for an overtaking opportunity. One presented itself when his rival left the inside line open through a right-hander for Newsham to make the pass with a quarter of the 30-minute race remaining.

In similarly atrocious conditions the following day Newsham picked his way from tenth on the partly reversed grid to finish third, ahead of team-mate Darron Lewis and Sam Laidlaw on his first weekend racing the i30 N TCR in TCR UK.

Newsham was back on the front row for the final race of the weekend and – despite dipping a wheel into the turn 1 gravel – held the lead for the entire race to notch up a second win of the weekend and a third of the 2024 season to close the gap to the points’ leaders.