Sean Walkinshaw was unable to capitalise on one of his strongest qualifying performances of the season after three tough races in the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship at Donington Park.
A great qualifying session saw the 18 year old propel his MTECH Lite-prepared FR 2.0 machine to three top ten positions, going eighth, ninth and eighth for the three races.
A slow getaway and early contact in the opening race left the Chipping Norton-based racer with a mountain to climb, Walkinshaw eventually recovering to thirteenth.
A self-inflicted spin led to a disappointing 21st place finish in race two, which he hoped to make amends for in race three. It began well, Walkinshaw sitting in a tight three way battle for a top ten finish, but contact at Redgate at lap twelve sent him into the wall at Hollywood, instantly ending his race.
“All three of us were coming out of Redgate fine but then there was some contact to my car, which did something to my steering, the wheel came loose and I ended up in the wall”, said Sean, “It’s annoying when you get taken out, especially when you have good pace, but the driver that hit me did receive two points on his racing licence.
“This is our third race weekend in a row where we’ve qualified in the top 10, we’ve got the consistency with qualifying now which is good but we’re just having problems in the races. I did make a mistake in the second race but what happened in the first and third races wasn’t our fault at all – it’s pretty frustrating.”
