Dave Newsham rounded off an emotional home race weekend at Knockhill by scoring his first podium of the season, and the best-ever result for the AmD Tuning team.

Newsham said he had considered not racing following the death of his mother on Thursday, but was delighted he did – and said he was sure she would be looking down on him as he raced to second in the final encounter.

Newsham’s Ford Focus ST was on the pace all weekend, something he and the team attributed to a successful test at Snetterton following the last round.

The 2010 Clio Cup champion could only manage 16th on the grid, but battled through to ninth and eighth in the first two races. Although he couldn’t keep Rob Collard at bay in the finale, he admirably held off the other two West Surrey Racing BMWs of Colin Turkington and Nick Foster to taste the podium champagne.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Newsham said: “We had a good test at Snetterton, which was our first of the year. We’ve been desperately overdue that test, and that has translated to this weekend.

“We knew if we could get the reverse grid, we had the pace in the car to do something like that.

“It’s been a tough weekend with my mother passing away on Thursday. I was wondering ‘should I come here?’, but the team were here, and I had about 100 sponsors here.

“I am so glad I did, because it has helped take my mind off things. And who knows, maybe my mum gave me a bit of a shove there. My parents got me into motor racing age seven, and my mum would be so proud.”

On his defence of second place, Newsham added: “I wasn’t going to be a pushover. I made a mistake and let Rob [Collard] get past me, when the rear tyres weren’t up to temperature going through Clark’s.

“With a few laps to go, the other BMWs were catching me, and I thought ‘You’re going to have to work hard, guys’, because we needed this.”

Delighted team boss Shaun Hollamby said the seeds of the result were sown at the Snetterton test.

He said: “Everything worked much better here. We had the pace to be in the top 10 in qualifying, but Dave didn’t quite nail the lap together.

“But we knew we had good race pace, and all through the three races we have been gradually improving the car, and how Dave applies the car.

“It’s a strange place, Knockhill – you think you need to be aggressive, but actually it’s a bit more clinical than that.

“It’s been a help working with Motorbase, as we can look at their data, and Mat [Jackson] has been going really well here.

“I’m really, really pleased for the team, because so much work goes on behind the scenes. To turn that into points and trophies is perfect.

“How fantastic is it? A little team like us, and at the end of the race I’ve got Dick Bennetts congratulating me. I remember watching Ayrton Senna winning Formula 3 races with Dick Bennetts running him. For me, that’s just ‘wow’!”