Photo Gallery «Tom Walkinshaw - racing driver, race engineer and manager»
Tom Walkinshaw won the 1984 European Touring Car Championship with his TWR team (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) in a Jaguar XJS and won the 24 Hours of Spa. Jaguar was so impressed by the successes that they commissioned "Major Tom" to bring the cat back to Le Mans after years of abstinence. TWR had no problems with this task either, taking victory in the endurance classic in 1988 and 1990. On top of this came 2 world championship titles in 1987 and 1988 for the Jaguar XJR sports prototypes. In 1991, Flavio Briatore brought Tom Walkinshaw into Formula 1 as race engineer at Benetton, with Ross Brawn as the third member of the team. The three of them together won the world championship title in 1994 with Michael Schumacher in the cockpit. "Major Tom" then took over 50% of Ligier and in 1996 he joined Arrows, where he ran out of money in 2002. Tom was known for pushing the regulations to the limit, as this was probably the only way that Damon Hill could have come close to winning the 1997 Hungarian GP with the Arrows Yamaha. He led the race until the last lap, but was caught by Jacques Villeneuve (Williams-Renault) shortly before the finish due to gearbox problems. After the end of Formula 1, Tom disappeared to Australia where he took over the Holden brand and won the title in the V8 Supercar series with Rick Kelly. In 2006, he bought the Australian sports car manufacturer Elfin. Tom Walkinshaw, born on August 14, 1946, loved rugby, which he could not deny visually. He was even president of Gloucester Rugby Football Club. Last Sunday, "Major Tom" succumbed to cancer at the age of 64.
