JRM drivers Sean Walkinshaw and Craig Dolby continued their resurgent form in the Blancpain Sprint Series at Misano, Italy by emerging as the fastest drivers in the field during the course of the entire weekend. And the duo were only denied a certain brace of podium finishes when a wheel nut got jammed during their qualifying race pit stop on Saturday night.
The British pairing carried their impressive form in the final Blancpain Endurance round at Nürburgring last month – where they qualified P3, led for the first hour and ultimately finished in P8 – into this weekend’s Sprint fixture at Misano.
Dolby qualified the Always Evolving Motorsport-run Replay XD NEW Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in a magnificent P2 after only being pipped to pole by the #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari on its final timed lap. And the 27-year-old was in imperious form when Saturday night’s floodlit qualifying race got underway as he matched the pace of the leading Ferrari for his entire stint. He was only 0.3s off P1 when he pitted to hand over to team-mate Walkinshaw.
However, the team’s hopes of a podium were dashed when the front-left wheel nut got jammed and the time lost meant 21-year-old Walkinshaw (below) dropped from P2 to P15 in the pits. It was a bitter blow, but Walkinshaw – JRM’s Development Driver for 2015 – used the disappointment as a catalyst for a magnificent fight back and he promptly tore through the field, overtaking six cars in the closing 25 minutes to secure P9 at the chequered flag.
Overtaking was always going to be a challenge on the tight Misano circuit during today’s main race, but Dolby and Walkinshaw revelled in the pace of the #173 NEW Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 – run with operational support from AIM Autosport – and managed to climb from P9 to an amazing P5 at the end of the hour-long race. They also added a fastest lap time in the main race to the fastest lap time they set during Saturday’s qualifying race.
“Craig and I were really fast in both races and in reality our pace should have translated into a couple of podiums this weekend, but the wheel nut problem in the qualifying race set us back a little bit,” Walkinshaw explained. “The GT-R gave us some awesome pace in free air and we were a second a lap faster than some of the cars ahead of us. But Misano is renowned for being hard to overtake and we just couldn’t get past into the race position that our pace deserved.”
Dolby (above) believes all of the ingredients have now come together in the last two races that will enable the JRM drivers and the Always Evolving Motorsport team to finish the Blancpain season on a high in the final Sprint round Zandvoort next weekend.
He said: “The drivers at the head of a Blancpain field are no slouches and we’ve beaten them for outright pace in both races this weekend. What we’ve done in the last two Blancpain rounds has proven what the NEW Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 is really capable of – and that’s at two circuits where we didn’t expect to go too well. We carved out a 12-second lead at Nürburgring and qualified on the front row at Misano.
“I think we’ve shocked a lot of people in the last couple of events and left a few people in the paddock scratching their heads. That shows we’re doing something right and it gives us a lot of confidence heading to Zandvoort. It would be fantastic to finish the season with a podium and there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t do that next weekend.”
James Walters, JRM Partnership Manager, said: “This is only the second race weekend that Sean and Craig have been working with the Always Evolving and AIM guys, but the transformation in form has been incredible.
“Everything is gelling really well and there’s a lot of confidence running through the team as the GT-R shows its true mettle as a serious Blancpain package. It’s great to see the guys with smiles on their faces and we’ll go into the final race with lots of confidence.”