Tom Walkinshaw

Walkinshaw during the 1993 San Marino Grand Prix

**Thomas "Tom" Dobbie Thomson Walkinshaw** (born 14 August 1946) is a British racing car driver and manager from Scotland. Walkinshaw had a good career as a driver, but became best known after establishing his own team, Tom Walkinshaw Racing. Through TWR, Tom was the architect of Jaguar's sports-car racing renaissance in the mid-1980s.

## Racing career

Born in Midlothian, Scotland's Walkinshaw's birthplace is Mauldslie Farm, close to Penicuik. In 1968 he started his racing career in an MG Midget and then switched to a Lotus Formula Ford car. He drove a Hawke to victory in the Scottish FF1600 championship the following year. He joined Lotus in the British Formula Three championship in 1970. Subsequently, he joined the March 'works' team, where a racing incident resulted in a broken ankle. Despite this setback, he carried on with his career and drove in other classes, including Formula Two and Formula 5000.

In 1974, Ford engaged Walkinshaw as a driver for their Capri in the British Saloon Car Championship (BSCC). He ended up winning his class that year as a result of this. In 1976 Walkinshaw created Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), continuing to drive for his own team. In 1976, he participated in the World Championship for Makes, driving a BMW 3.5 CSL sponsored by Hermetite alongside John Fitzpatrick. The combination earned several good performances including a spectacular victory, by just 1.3 seconds, in the Silverstone 6 Hours. He drove a 5.3-litre, V12 Jaguar XJS to victory in the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) in 1984.

Walkinshaw and Australian driver John Goss entered an Australian Group C spec XJS in the James Hardie 1000 in September 1984. Walkinshaw never left the starting line as his gearbox failed and he was struck from behind by a Chevrolet Camaro after qualifying in tenth place. The race was red flagged and restarted thirty minutes later (the first restart in the race's history) after multiple cars also got involved in the collision. TWR was compelled to employ the cars they had been using in the British Saloon Car Championship, the 3.5-litre V8 Rover Vitesse, in the European Touring Car Championship after Jaguar discontinued the XJS from Group A racing in 1985. Despite winning six of the championship's fourteen races, Walkinshaw and Win Percy were only able to place third overall, behind Gianfranco Brancatelli and Thomas Lindström's Eggenberger Volvo 240Ts.

Walkinshaw promised to bring his ETCC Jaguars back to Bathurst in an attempt to win the Australian classic following Australia's 1985 promotion to Group A. With the assistance of 'Jaguar Rover Australia' (JRA), the three ETCC Jags were brought out of retirement and transported to Bathurst. They dominated practice and qualifying, with Walkinshaw securing pole position, Jeff Allam securing second place on the grid, and John Goss, starting sixth, provisionally in pole position. After leading for more than half of the race due to a split oil line late in the race, Walkinshaw finished third in the ETCC race alongside regular co-driver Win Percy. The Allam/Ron Dickson car was out after 3 laps with engine failure when broken glass from the cars right headlight got sucked into the intake system, while the Goss/Armin Hahne car would win for TWR after having to battle for over 100 laps of the 6.172 km (3.835 mi) long Mount Panorama Circuit with a broken drivers seat which had to be held in place by cable ties attached to the roll cage.

The Rovers were once more the TWR cars for the renamed ETCC (which had changed its name to the FIA Touring Car Championship in 1986 in preparation for the 1987 World Touring Car Championship), thanks to sponsorship from Bastos/Texaco. Although Walkinshaw was once again the favourite to win, he would again come in third. Win Percy, the co-driver, was first declared the 1986 winner when earlier race results were changed in response to protests. After the Australian car industry declined to support Walkinshaw with funding, he cancelled his intention to bring the V12 Jaguars back to Bathurst in 1986. Walkinshaw took the Jaguars to Japan and New Zealand for the 1986 Fuji InterTEC 500 and the 1987 Wellington 500, which was the last race for the XJS, with sponsorship from the Strathmore Group, based in New Zealand. Walkinshaw demonstrated that the 1984-spec Jaguars were still competitive in 1986 by qualifying on pole at the fast Fuji circuit, ahead of the Holden VK Commodore SS Group As and the new Nissan Skyline RS DR30s. This came after some engine work increased the V12's power output to 500 bhp (373 kW; 507 PS). Before retiring due to low oil pressure, Walkinshaw easily led the race for the first six laps, followed by Australian Peter Brock and teammate Jeff Allam in his Holden Dealer Team VK Commodore.

After forming a partnership with Australian car manufacturer Holden in February 1987 (at the expense of Brock's HDT Special Vehicles operation), Walkinshaw fully intended to compete in the inaugural World Touring Car Championship driving a 4.9-litre V8 Holden VL Commodore SS Group A. However, he withdrew before the first race at Monza in protest at the US$60,000 entrance fee imposed by Bernie Ecclestone, who had been appointed WTCC's promoter. The car was driven by Walkinshaw and Jeff Allam at the Nürburgring round of the championship; however, it was unable to compete with the new Ford Sierra RS Cosworths and BMW M3s, and Walkinshaw and Allam had to retire the vehicle due to brake issues.

TWR created the Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV in 1988, and Walkinshaw and Jeff Allam collaborated once more at Silverstone's RAC Tourist Trophy. While the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth were still unbeatable, Walkinshaw managed to qualify the Commodore in ninth position. After experiencing a number of car issues, the two placed fifteenth at the end of the race.

The 1988 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst was Tom Walkinshaw's final race as a driver. As a member of the Holden Special Vehicles squad, TWR shipped the ETCC Commodore to Australia for the event in collaboration with Australian Larry Perkins. Walkinshaw and Allam qualified in 13th place, slower than the Perkins Engineering-built team car, and were the second retirement of the race after a chaotic lead-up that included Walkinshaw illegally protesting the five leading Australian-built Sierras. Walkinshaw also experienced a rear suspension failure after just five laps. Later in the race, Walkinshaw drove the Perkins/Denny Hulme car that he had cross-entered. After 137 laps while in second place, the car's engine failed, forcing it to be retired. It was eventually determined that Walkinshaw's demonstration against the Sierras was unlawful because Perkins Engineering, not TWR, was the HSV team's entrant. Only a race entrant was permitted to file a protest under the meeting's rules, therefore the stewards made a mistake by allowing Walkinshaw to do so using TWR's FIA licence. Ironically, after a counter-protest by Dick Johnson Racing team manager Neal Lowe, it was discovered that the three HSV team cars, including the team's spare car, had illegal modifications to the steering racks. However, since the spare car didn't start the race and both race cars failed to finish, no action was taken. Following the Tooheys 1000, Walkinshaw retired from driving to concentrate on the management of TWR's burgeoning motorsports portfolio.

## Team management

In 1975 Walkinshaw established Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), a group whose business was the manufacture and design of racing and road cars. TWR ran touring car programmes in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. In 1983 the TWR team took eleven wins in eleven races in the British Saloon Car Championship running Rover Vitesses, before being stripped of the title for a technical infringement. TWR also ran a Jaguar XJ-S ETCC touring car programme before taking on their World Sportscar Championship programme. In six years the programme won Le Mans twice and the World Championships three times. The same team brought engineer Ross Brawn to prominence.

In 1991 Walkinshaw was recruited as Engineering Director at Benetton, as TWR bought a 35% stake in the team. The deal was simple: Flavio Briatore would take care of the money and Tom would do everything else. Both Ross Brawn and Walkinshaw had been impressed by a 22-year-old German driver who had raced for Mercedes in the sports car championship, so when the Benetton team principal Briatore recruited Michael Schumacher in 1992, they were fully behind the decision.

## Notes

1. ↑ *Grand Prix Encyclopedia* www.grandprix.com Retrieved 13 December 2006
2. ↑ Collings (2004) p. 211
3. ↑ Collings (2004) pp.211–212
4. ↑ *Autocar.co.uk* [1] Retrieved 13 December 2010
5. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Henry, Alan (2010-12-13). "Tom Walkinshaw obituary". *The Guardian*. Retrieved 2024-01-11.

## References

* <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Collings, Timothy (2004). *The Piranha Club*. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-7535-0965-2.