Tom Walkinshaw

Tom Walkinshaw (left) and Flavio Briatore 1993

The Rover SD1 by Tom Walkinshaw and Win Percy at the Nurburgring, 1985

Tom Walkinshaw (born August 14, 1946 in Penicuik , † December 12, 2010 ibid) was a British automobile racing driver and founder and owner of the racing team Tom Walkinshaw Racing .

Career

Walkinshaw drove his first races in 1968 in the Scottish Formula Ford 1600 series, which he finished as champions the following year. In 1970 he entered the English Formula 3 championship. Walkinshaw ended his monoposto career after sponsorship problems and a serious accident in which he broke both legs .

Touring and sports cars

In 1974 Walkinshaw switched to touring cars and in the same year won the British Touring Car Championship in a Ford Capri . After the end of the contract with Ford, Walkinshaw founded his own team, Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), in 1976 and celebrated his first big win with John Fitzpatrick in a BMW CSL at Silverstone . In the following years, TWR used a large number of brands in different racing series. Under Walkinshaw's direction, racing cars were built based on BMW, Mazda , Opel , Rover and Jaguar cars . In 1980 and 1981 the British Touring Car Championship was won. The Range Rover with which René Metge won the Dakar Rally in 1981 was built by Walkinshaw's team.

1982 TWR started with Jaguar in the European and with Rover in the British touring car championship. The victory in the European Touring Car Championship in 1984 with Walkinshaw as a driver and at the 24 Hours of Spa with a Jaguar XJS , led Jaguar to TWR to develop a car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans to commission.

1987 and 1988 won TWR with by Tony Southgate and later by Ross Brawn constructed Jaguar XJR Sportscars the World Sportscar Championship and 1988 and 1990 the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1991 a third title in the sports car world championship was added.

formula 1

Tom Walkinshaw then took over the post of chief engineer with the Benetton Formula 1 team, with which he won the 1994 World Championship. At the end of the year, after disputes, he was redirected from Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore to Ligier , which he originally intended to buy, but ultimately lost out to French investor interests, who preferred Alain Prost as future owner. In 1996 , Walkinshaw bought the Arrows team, which narrowly missed its first victory at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix with Yamaha engines and ex-world champion Damon Hill . At the time, TWR had 1,500 employees in the UK, Sweden, Australia and the USA.

In 2002 Arrows went bankrupt , dragging TWR into the financial abyss. The Australian part of the company was taken over by the Holden brand , which formed the Holden Special Vehicles company and competed in the V8 supercar series. Walkinshaw returned to this team in 2006 and helped driver Rick Kelly win the title . In late 2006, Walkinshaw bought the small Australian sports car manufacturer Elfin Sports Cars .

Walkinshaw died of lung cancer in 2010 at the age of 64 .

Others

• The Oxford Brookes University gave Tom Walkinshaw the honorary doctorate of engineering .
• Walkinshaw was chairman of the Gloucester Rugby Club .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1976	Hermetite Productions Ltd.	BMW 3.0 CSL	John Fitzpatrick		failure	Wagon fire
1977	Luigi Racing	BMW 3.0 CSL	Eddy Joosen	Claude de Wael	failure	Engine failure
1978	BMW Great Britain	Osella PA6	Dieter Quester	Wheel Dougall	failure	accident
1981	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda RX-7	Tetsu Ikuzawa	Peter Lovett	failure	Engine failure
1982	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda RX-7	Chuck Nicholson	Peter Lovett	failure	Engine failure

Web links

Commons : Tom Walkinshaw  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Portrait on grandprix.com (English)
• Statistics of the Formula 1 stakes of TWR (English)
• Tom Walkinshaw. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on May 15, 2020 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Walkinshaw dies of cancer: Goodbye," Major Tom "!" (Motorsport-Total.com on December 12, 2010)