Callum Newsham wins again as title goes to the wire
Callum Newsham made it two wins from two at Silverstone, with the fight for the 2024 TCR UK Championship now going down to the wire with three drivers still in contention for top honours.
Matt Wilson got away well from the line to lead the way into turn one for the first time with Sam Laidlaw slow from second, with the Lynk & Co of Ryan Bensley jumping into second and the Audi of Luke Sargeant holding third.
Of the three championship contenders, a rocket start from Newsham saw him make up six spots into fourth, with Brad Hutchison also making up a position to sit in seventh with defending champion Carl Boardley slipping to eighth.
Bensley grabbed the lead from Wilson going into the second lap as Newsham took advantage of a touch between Wilson and Sargeant at the cut-through to grab second as the safety car was called out to recover the stricken Hyundai of Andrew Dyer.
The race resumed on lap five with Newsham immediately making a bid for the lead, sliding past Bensley into Village and being followed by Andrew Shepherd – who immediately slipped up the inside into Becketts.
Shepherd completed the move into Stowe, with Newsham unable to respond going into Club, with Bensley behind then coming under attack from Sargeant’s Audi.
As the pack behind then closed up, Hutchison saw his chance to get ahead of the Hyundai of Darron Lewis to put a car between himself and Boardley – and then grabbed fourth from Sargeant into Club.
At the front, Newsham saw his chance to move ahead of Shepherd to grab the lead – and bagged fastest lap – with Boardley moving into sixth ahead of Lewis.
Things turned on their head on the ninth lap when both Shepherd and Bensley ran into problems, with Shepherd’s Cupra slowing with a mechanical issue and Bensley going off, which promoted Hutchison up into second and allowed Boardley to bag fourth.
By this stage, Newsham was already well clear at the front and was untroubled out front as he scored a comfortable second win of the weekend and took maximum points ahead of Hutchison – meaning the pair will go into the season finale sitting dead level on points in the title race.
Additional wins for Newsham means he sits second in the standings, with Hutchison slipping to third.
Boardley however will remain out front after he followed Sargeant’s Audi across the line in fourth spot to leave him 33 points clear of his rivals with a maximum of 41 left in the final race.
Lewis took a fighting fifth ahead of Steven Laidlaw, who impressed in the new Cupra to come from the back of the grid in 16th to finish in sixth.
Alistair Camp – fresh from competing in the previous race in the Civic Cup – took seventh from Sam Laidlaw, with polesitter Wilson and championship boss Stewart Lines rounding out the top ten.
Gen 1 Cup champion Rick Kerry once again took class honours, comfortably clear of Cedric Bloch’s Audi.
The third and final race starts at 17:35 local time/18:35 CEST.
