Sean Walkinshaw Impressed For Mtech Lite At Rockingham - Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Sean Walkinshaw delivered a pair of strong points-scoring race drives to continue his strong progress in the 2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship during Rounds Four and Five at Rockingham.
The 18 year old started on the tenth row of the grid for the opening race, with a disappointing opening lap seeing him slip outside the top twenty. Despite some front-wing damage on his Mtech Lite car, sustained after running over debris, Walkinshaw was battled through the field to finish in nineteenth place.
Walkinshaw started a lower-than-expected 26th on the grid for round five, putting the Oxfordshire-based racer on a mission to climb up the field. Making up five places on the opening lap alone, Walkinshaw went on to move into the top twenty on lap four. Sitting in seventeenth with three laps remaining, Walkinshaw gained a spot due to a late retirement to finish a highly creditable sixteenth.
Walkinshaw said: “Qualifying wasn't what we wanted, wet again like at Snetterton, but the first race was alright until I hit some debris which destroyed half of my front wing. Considering the damage, I was pretty happy with my lap times and to pick-up any points at all – we went from last to 19th so that was good.
“I was hoping for a Safety Car really in the second race to help us close up. We took a bit of a gamble with the wing choice and by the end of the race the tyres were pretty messed-up. I still made it into 16th from 26th on the grid though, so that's not bad going.”
