Former Arrows team boss Tom Walkinshaw has died at the age of 64 after a long battle with cancer. Walkinshaw was a successful touring car driver driving for his own team Tom Walkinshaw Racing, in the late 70s. He built the company into a motorsport and engineering empire, most famously finding success with Jaguar. He won the European Touring Car Championship in 1984 and after moving into sportscars Jaguar won Le Mans in 1988 and 1990, and the World Championship in 1987, '88 and ’91.
He also ran the TWR Jaguar IMSA team which made a huge impact in the USA in Castrol and Bud Light colors, from a base in Valparaiso, Indiana. Although Walkinshaw hoped to move into Champcar, plans never came to fruition.
In 1991 he joined Benetton as engineering director introducing Ross Brawn to the sport after their previous co-operation. He was also instrumental in luring Michael Schumacher to Benetton from Jordan while Flavio Briatore was taking over team's management.
Walkinshaw moved to Ligier in 1995 but he soon acquired the management of Footwork Arrows team convincing in 1997 out-of-contract world champion Damon Hill to join, despite interest from bigger teams, providing the information that Toyota which already was considering to enter the sport was the funding source of Yamaha engines used by his team.
Team's best performance was at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix when Damon Hill was leading the race but a blown Yamaha engine during the final laps of the race, gave the victory to Jacques Villeneuve, an essential victory as it was later proved in his way to the world championship.
However, after failing to win a single race in 382 attempts, Arrows eventually folded in 2002 but Walkinshaw in a co-operation with Graig Pollock tried to resurrect his team by the name Phoenix Racing without success ending Walkinshaw's involvement in F1. Still one of his team’s greatest accomplishment was the development of AX3 a 3-seater F1 car.
Although his off track business deals sometimes attracted criticism like his dispute with Minardi's Paul Stoddart about folded Prost Grand Prix's television rights stake, Walkinshaw was hugely respected by the drivers who worked with him like Jos Verstappen, Enrique Bernoldi, Tora Takagi, Mika Salo and Pedro de la Rosa, and he will be remembered as the true racer of the “Orange” team.
A former chairman of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), Walkinshaw remained involved in motorsport, notably in Australia's V8 Supercar championship, as well as becoming the chairman of Gloucester Rugby Club. Former Le Mans and F1 driver Mark Blundell paid his respects on his Twitter page: "Just heard that Tom Walkinshaw passed away today, great loss to the world of motorsport, good driver and team owner, RIP."
