[V]
Love him or loathe him, Tom Walkinshaw gave so much of himself to motorsport throughout his life. While many of us have contested the motives behind some of his manoeuvring, he should be lauded for much of what he did.
Australia's first glimpses of TW came at Bathurst in 1984; and while this then-adolescent racing fan marvelled at the miracles he worked in engineering some speed into John Goss' oft-derided Group C XJS, the story of that attack on The Big Hill made for compelling reading decades later...
Walkinshaw's succinct and pithy private analysis of what really needed to be done to the car (it went along the lines of "we should build a big metal box around it... and then drop the whole thing into Sydney Harbour") belied the work he and his TWR army did to get the car into a Top Ten contention position for the first time in its life over the course of the programme... ultimately they substituted most of the mechanical bits with Group A stuff from his own stable... the notable exception being the clutch setup, which Goss was adamant that it remain, depsite Walkinshaw's express opposition... he was only too right, as the startline events proved.
His return in 1985, spearheading the Jaguar invasion, was a tour-de-force, although the result wasn't as conclusive as the week's preamble would've had us believe... one car out within 2 laps, one car suffering grave haemorrhaging in the latter stages, and the ultimate winner, the third car, with Goss installed in what was seen as a token gesture to repay for the previous year, labouring on with a broken seat... that it brought Goss briefly in from the cold was perhaps the most-laudable aspect of the win...
It was a shame not to see the elegant Bastos Rovers here in 1986, given their form in the ETCC that year, and then TW's final driving hurrah, at Bathust 1988, left a bitter taste in many mouths, with his relentless politicking and ultimate disqualification for his Commodores' illegalities.
Despite the dim view many fans took of the man, he inspired great loyalty from his friends, ever solicitous of their wellbeing... his long friendship with Win Percy benefitted Australian motorsport immensely... his glib dispatch of Winston to form HRT was anecdotally a very casual move ("just get down there and do it"), but it laid the foundation for a very popular Bathurst win, and one of the great teams of motor touring car racing here... in the wake of Percy's monumental Le Mans accident, TW also resolved that Win would never drive a TWR car at La Sarthe again, apparently entirely in light of how fortunate it was that Win was not killed... he did, I believe also aid WP as much as he could after Win's debilitating back injury.
While it's too easy to vilify Tom Walkinshaw as The Dreaded Red Enemy personified, at the end of his life, I will prefer to reflect upon his dedication to motor racing, and will suit my words by calling up the youtube clip of his magnificent pole lap from The Great Race in 1985, and recall an imperious driver, well in charge of his gorgeous steed, committed and in control...
Vale Tom Walkinshaw, you were many things, but at the end of your life, I celebrate your achievements, and mourn for your friends and loved ones, and the loss they feel today.
