Walkinshaw Confident Ahead Of Maiden Visit To Moscow Raceway

Oxfordshire’s Sean Walkinshaw will experience a brand new challenge with the MRS GT-Racing team this coming Saturday, 4th July, when the all-action Blancpain Sprint Series visits Moscow Raceway in Russia for round four of the season.

Originally scheduled to take place on a street circuit layout in the centre of Moscow, the change of venue – triggered by construction work in the city – means the championship will make its Russian bow at the FIA approved Raceway in the Volokolamsky district, 60 miles to the west of the capital.

Sean and team-mate Craig Dolby will head to Russia ninth in the driver standings with one podium finish to their credit so far in the Sprint Series, secured at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in May during the Qualification Race for round two.

Displaying superb pace and competitiveness thus far, in both the Sprint Series and their dovetailed campaign in the Blancpain Endurance Series where they also team-up with Martin Plowman, the duo will go into round four with very realistic hopes of another strong points challenge.

Without the misfortune of being caught up in some contact during the early part of the Sprint Series championship, the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 team-mates could easily have been in or around the top three in the standings, such has been the level of the MRS GT-Racing squad’s performance.

So, at Moscow Raceway at the weekend, 21-year-old Sean is determined to challenge for his second podium of the year as well as closing the points gap to the championship leaders as the category reaches its halfway point.

“Moscow should be fantastic, I’m really looking forward to racing there for the first time and pretty confident it should be a strong weekend”, said the Chipping Norton racer, “We’ve been competitive since the start of the season, the car has been fantastic all year, so there’s no reason that shouldn’t continue. We need to take away some good points from both races, hopefully we can.”

The MRS GT-Racing squad heads to Russia off the back of a strong performance in official testing at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium last Wednesday, a key pre-event practice for the biggest race of the Endurance Series season – next month’s Total 24 Hours of Spa.

On combined times for the day at the Ardennes track, Sean and team-mates Dolby and Plowman placed a very impressive 10th overall – and eighth in the Pro Cup classification – within just 0.8 seconds of the outright pace.

“Spa went well”, said Sean, “The MRS GT-Racing guys did a fantastic job with the car, as always, and to end the test in the top 10 was exactly where we wanted to be. It’s obviously good to go into the next round of the Sprint Series off the back of such a positive test.”

Free practice for this coming weekend’s Sprint Series event in Moscow will take place on Friday, 3rd July, with qualifying following at 09.00 (local time) on Saturday, 4th July. The Qualification Race will get underway at 13.00 (local time) with the Main Race scheduled to start at 16.00 (local time).

Live online streaming of both races will be carried HERE from 11.00 and 14.00 respectively, UK time, with TV coverage set to be screened on BT Sport 1.

Provisional 2015 Blancpain Sprint Series Driver Standings (after Rd3):9th Sean Walkinshaw/Craig Dolby, 15pts

Provisional 2015 Blancpain Sprint Series Team Standings (after Rd3):6th MRS GT-Racing, 23pts


Related Motorsport Articles

85,022 articles