Media Release: Fergus Photo Finish At Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch, Kent – Saturday, October 20, 2012; Fergus Walkinshaw delivered another thrilling Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup performance in the first of three final series rounds at Brands Hatch on Saturday afternoon. In a nail-biting photo finish with Century Motorsport teammate Max Coates, the Chipping Norton ace finished just 0.020 seconds adrift of the fifth place he held for much of the 10-lap battle, after a skilful drive to nurse his Ginetta G55 home with a slow puncture.
Clocking in third fastest in Friday’s official and rather wet TOCA test, Walkinshaw was in fine form ahead of the fiercely competitive final qualifying showdown of the season. Biding his time in the pit lane while a dry racing line emerged, Walkinshaw joined the action six minutes into the 20 minute session on Saturday morning and within three laps ran second fastest.
He continued to feature in the top three until his chances of securing a front grid slot were hampered by squabbling G50s running three-wide and, although confident the car had at least another second to give, Walkinshaw opted to conserve his tyres for the first race.
A solid start for round 25 from eighth on the grid saw Walkinshaw slot into sixth place heading into Paddock Hill Bend as Andy Richardson muscled through to fifth, but Walkinshaw refused to be shaken from contention.
Proving his pace with constantly improving lap times, the 21 year-old set the fastest first sector of the entire field on lap three, by the end of which barely 0.3 seconds separated each of the top seven runners. A retiring Richardson on lap four promoted Walkinshaw up to fifth place to pace Tom Ingram by 0.4 seconds while keeping Coates at bay 0.6 seconds behind.
The Oxford Brookes University Automotive Engineering student had just set his fastest time of the entire race on lap seven to pull 1.4 seconds clear of Coates when the #91 car picked up a slow left rear puncture and consequently dropped back from the fight for fourth.
Now on the back foot and forced to defend heading into the final 2.4-mile tour, Walkinshaw put in a valiant effort to maintain position and keep the Ginetta G55 on-track. Yet, unsurprisingly, Coates managed to get the run out of Clark Curve onto the Brabham Straight to steal fifth at the flag by just two hundreds of a second.
Walkinshaw commented: “To pick up the puncture and lose fifth place by such a small margin is naturally a little disappointing, but I’m still pleased to get the weekend off to a top point-scoring start.
“We obviously need to take a good look at the car and check that the puncture hasn’t caused any further damage, we’ll also need to re-track after Andy [Richardson] made contact into Paddock Hill Bend. But the Century Motorsport Ginetta G55 is feeling great and I know we’ve still got more to come in the final two races tomorrow.”
The penultimate Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup race of the year will take place at 10.40 on Sunday morning, followed by the final series battle at 15.55 shown live on ITV4, with live timing also available at www.ginetta.com/live
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Media Contact
Emma Spearing, Hazel PR:
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