Media Release: FW Motorsport Endures Disappointment At Donington Park
Donington Park, Leicestershire – Sunday 21 April 2013; Fergus Walkinshaw and his FW Motorsport team encountered a disappointing second day of Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup racing at Donington Park today.
Despite showing clear pace and potential throughout the team’s first outing at the Leicestershire circuit, a throttle issue left Walkinshaw with little option but to salvage a 12th place point-scoring finish for round five. The Oxford Brookes University student was then robbed of the chance to mount one of his characteristic charges through the field without completing a single lap of the 1.9-mile National circuit in round six.
Lining up on the fifth row of the Ginetta GT Supercup grid for round five on Sunday morning, Walkinshaw made a strong getaway to place eighth exiting Redgate and put his 3.7 litre G55 in the running for a top six slot.
Keeping James Birch at bay in the early stages, the Association of Air Ambulances Motorsport Advocate soon pulled clear and focused on pushing Mark Davies for seventh while joining the battle for the top spots. But the Chipping Norton team owner/driver was denied the opportunity to fight for another top five finish when the car suffered a complete loss of power heading into the Chicane at the end of lap five.
Managing to coast into pit lane, the frantic switching of switches and an encouraging slap to the dashboard helped the 370bhp powerhouse roar back into life. However, with vital time lost, Walkinshaw rejoined the fray trailing the entire field by over four seconds.
Mounting his recovery drive from 17th place, the flying Scotsman cleared the G50 runners to join the tail end of the G55 field by lap 13. With Colin White next in his sights, Walkinshaw wasted no time slashing the #78 car’s 2.5-second advantage at a rate of a second per lap before executing a well-timed pass for 12th heading into Redgate for the final time.
With the throttle body and pedal replaced by the FW Motorsport crew ready for round six, Walkinshaw was raring to deliver one of his characteristic charges through the field for the final race of the weekend.
His plan, however, fell apart when attacking the mid-field after a lightening start for round six and a fellow competitor unexpectedly braked on the apex of Schwantz Curve. Forced to take avoiding action, Walkinshaw braked heavily and tipped into a spin that left the #91 car beached in the McLeans gravel trap.
“It’s a massive shame to end FW Motorsport’s first race weekend at Donington Park with a DNF,” commented Walkinshaw. “I wasn’t expecting someone to brake on that part of the circuit where we should be flat out, I swerved to avoid what would have been a heavy impact and unfortunately couldn’t catch the spin.
“We may not have had the opportunity to show our true pace this weekend, but we were happy to keep taking consistent point-scoring finishes and we’d had a faultless record so far.
“The team did a good job to get the throttle issue resolved ready for the last race and it would have been nice to have rewarded their efforts with at least another top 10 result. But that’s racing and we’ll look onwards and upwards to Thruxton.”
-Ends-
FW Motorsport Press Office
Emma Spearing: +44 (0)7736 341828 | emma@fwmotorsport.com
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