ASH WALSH MOTORSPORT

ASHLEY WALSH MOTORSPORT

MEDIA RELEASE – May 20, 2007


Rising Star Walsh fights back at Winton

ASHLEY Walsh turned a Race 1 incident into a solid haul of points in Round 3 of the Australian Formula Ford Championship at Winton Motor Raceway last weekend.
The 19-year-old CAMS Rising Star driver qualified second before recording two point-scoring finishes.
The young gun now has his sights on clawing his way to the top of the competitive championship in the remaining five rounds.
Race 1 saw an incident ruin Walsh’s chance of the race and round victory. While dicing with a defensive Tim Blanchard, Walsh tried to pass him, but dropped two wheels on the grass and hit Blanchard’s car. The clash damaged Walsh’s Spectrum enough to rule it out of the race – but the carnage continued. With a bent machine, Walsh understeered off the track. An unlucky Taz Douglas collected Walsh’s stricken car, sending it into the barriers.
A subsequent steward’s hearing regarding the incident found it to be a racing incident.
In Race 2, Ash took a conservative approach, finishing 10th after starting from the back of the grid. His 10th place finish gave him one championship point.
The final race of the weekend was reduced to seven laps. Walsh didn’t make a great start to the race, but that turned out to be a blessing. Sonic driver James Moffat failed to move at the green light and was collected by Douglas. Walsh was able to avoid the incident, but had to take to the grass to do so.
From there, Walsh gradually picked his way through to fifth place and, according to Walsh himself, if it wasn’t for a brief rain shower, he would have finished the event in a higher position.
Blanchard won all three races at Winton, with Nick Percat and Kristian Lindbom on the podium overall.
Walsh now sits in fourth place in the Australian Formula Ford Championship on 78 points behind leader Tim Blanchard (156), James Moffat (128) and team-mate Lindbom (112).
The next round of the championship heads to New South Wales for the Queen’s Birthday race weekend at Eastern Creek, Sydney.
 
ASHLEY WALSH QUOTEBOOK:

“I’m pretty happy with fifth in Race 3, but at the same time, I’m not happy,” Walsh said.
“If it had stayed dried, I would have looked good for top three.
“I can still win this championship, no doubt. Points are now my main focus. My Spectrum is very fast, we just have to string it all together. I’m looking forward to Eastern Creek.
“The Race 1 incident was unfortunate. I went up the inside of Tim. He’d been blocking excessively during the race. I had a good run on him into the first turn but he squeezed me. I can’t be too critical, though. I would have been doing the same to him.
“We were very close and it was unfortunate that it ended that way.”

//ENDS

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Rising Walsh Wins On Debut

CAMS Rising Star driver Ashley Walsh impressed in his open wheeler debut by winning the second round of the Queensland Formula Ford Championship at Morgan Park on the weekend. Having already qualified on Pole Position in the newly acquired Van Diemen RF01, Walsh was never headed over the ten lap race around the demanding Warwick circuit, despite pressure from reigning Queensland Formula Ford Champion Trent Usher. Gear selection problems prevented Walsh from taking a double first round win, when he had to settle for second place behind Usher after a race long duel saw the lead swap numerous times. Walsh went on to dominate the non-championship races, demonstrating the ability that has taken him to multiple National Karting titles.

BF R acing team boss Brett Francis was more than pleased with Walsh’s first Formula Ford race, and is confident there is still more to come:

“I knew from his first few laps with us that Ash is quick, but today he demonstrated his excellent race craft as well. We are still sorting the car out, Ash hasn’t had much track time in it, and yet he can still go out there and win on debut. And he dealt with the gear-selection problems when they came up without getting flustered. He got his head down and got on with it. There’s still a lot more speed in the car, Ash is still getting better each time out, and I’m looking forward to our next race meeting.”