FW Motorsport enjoyed a solid finish to its Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup campaign with two top ten finishes in difficult conditions on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.
The season finale in Kent marked a return to competition for the team for the first time since Knockhill back in August, with team owner/driver Fergus Walkinshaw eager to impress at one of his favourite circuits.
Following a difficult Friday where he was limited to just 13 laps during official testing, Fergus qualified in an encouraging 13th place on the grid, with the Oxfordshire-based team then working to improve the set-up of its Ginetta G55 for the opening race of the weekend.
A strong start saw the 23 year-old move up to ninth place on the opening lap and he would run solidly inside the top ten throughout; only losing out on a ninth place finish after being overhauled by former champion Carl Breeze on the final lap.
Challenging damp conditions remained for the second race on Saturday afternoon, with Walkinshaw taking the chequered flag in twelfth place after another solid performance.
With a dry circuit for the season finale, Walkinshaw was keen to end the weekend on a high and another impressive start saw him end the first lap in seventh spot. As the race wore on however, he started to suffer with a lack of grip from the front tyres and slipped back to ninth spot, where he would stay to the finish after staving off the determined intensions of Tom Howard in a crowd-thrilling battle.
Unfortunately, a time penalty for exceeding the track limits meant the former Brands Hatch podium winner was classified behind Howard in tenth, although it still capped a solid end to the campaign for the second year team.
Walkinshaw commented: “It wasn’t an easy start to the weekend with the conditions on Saturday, and we didn’t get the set-up of the car quite right. We worked on that overnight and through a combination of the set-up work we did and the improved circuit conditions, it felt much better in race three.
“Unfortunately I started to suffer with the front tyres as the race wore on so we didn’t finish as high as we could have done, but it was a good race to end the season.
“Overall it’s been an okay year for us as a team, although it’s a shame that we weren’t able to take part in every race during the season. However, things are looking good for 2015 and we’ve already had interest from people who could be keen to work with us next season.”
