Macaulay Walsh managed to hold on to a top five placing in the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship despite suffering two luckless races in the latest rounds at Croft.
The Scorpio Motorsport man headed into the weekend just eleven points shy of the coveted top three and started the weekend impressively, posting the third fastest time overall. Walsh went sixth quickest in the opening qualifying session, before matching that result in the second session with his only flying lap of a red-flag interrupted session.
Walsh made a good start to the opening encounter and held sixth, closing on those in front. Walsh looked to challenge for fifth on lap three, but contact between himself and championship contenders Scott Malvern and Seb Morris wrecked his race, with front wing damage, suspension damage and a puncture causing him to end up in the gravel at the first corner on lap four.
A fantastic effort by the Scorpio team meant Walsh's FR 2.0 was back in one piece in time for the next race, but bitter disappointment struck on the lap to the grid when the driveshaft failed. The team managed to replace the driveshaft and got him back out on track, but Walsh could only finish 17th, a lap down.
Walsh said: “Race one was really disappointing. We made a good start and everything looked good but a few laps in at the complex it all got a bit close and it was just one of those incidents. I tried to get going again but the front-left tyre came away, the car was pretty badly damaged.
“It was looking good for race two, the team had done an amazing job to get the car repaired and we knew we had the pace. On the lap out of the pits the driveshaft went but the team did a great job to get it changed really quickly. When I got out there I had some fun but at this level that's not enough, you want to win. Hopefully at Donington we can be back on the podium.”
