Macaulay Walsh came agonisingly close to a podium finish during the penultimate rounds of the 2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship at Donington Park.
The Scorpio Motorsport driver overcame a tough qualifying session to secure a pair of top four results in the event’s three races.
Walsh could only qualifying on the fifth row of the grid for the first two races, before improving to sixth on the grid for race three.
The 17 year old impressed in the opener, fighting his way through from tenth to fourth, but a harder second race saw him only able to move up to eighth. The Norhtamptonshire teenager was back on form in the final race though, getting into the podium positions early on before having to settle for fourth again to end the weekend fifth in the championship standings.
“After the way qualifying went, it was always going to be a struggle”, explained Macaulay, “When you start mid-grid there’s always going to be a scrap, no matter how good or bad the drivers around you are it’s so hard to try and overtake.
“The last race was our best chance this weekend, the first few laps were alright but then we struggled a bit with the car. I started to over-drive a bit and then [Seb] Morris came past so we lost the podium, I just couldn’t keep with him then as we were losing a little bit at each corner. We know we can be on the podium at Silverstone, we’ve just got to get qualifying sorted.”
