Tom Walkinshaw, the former owner of Arrows team passes away
The former owner of Arrows team and one of the most significant men behind the success of Benetton in 1990s, Tom Walkinshaw, died on Sunday after encountering cancer very bravely for a long while.
The man covered the journey of 60 years of his life, showing immense love and keen interest for cars and auto-racing. Before making his way into Formula One in 1991, he already had a trail of success behind him in touring cars and Le Mans Racing, with legendary
teams like Jaguar. His first endeavour in the biggest racing series of the world was the heading of Benetton in 1991.
Among all his contributions to the auto sport world a very significant one is the introduction of Ross Brawn, the current Mercedes GP team boss to Formula One. Brawn used to work for Walkinshaw on Jaguar's sports car programme. Moreover, he also played a
very significant role in persuading Benetton to recruit the racing icon, Michael Schumacher. As the German made his debut for Jordan, Walkinshaw was quick to spot his talent and insisted the team to get the now 7-time world champion in the squad. Schumacher
stayed with Benetton for five years, before he moved to Ferrari in 1996.
The contributions of Walkinshaw in turning Benetton from an average team that won a race once in a while to a threat on the grid could never be over looked. However, the years of the team’s success were not short of controversies as some of their triumphs
became a matter of question for the team’s fairness.
Later, in 1996, Walkinshaw moved on to become a majority partner in the Arrows team in order to establish a more dominant name for him in the Formula One world.
The next, very strong campaign of the Scottish man was persuading the world champion, Damon Hill to join Arrows. Although, Arrow was then struggling hard for points and Hill had better choices with more successful teams, yet the two signed a contract. After
a very tough start together in 1997, the Hill/Arrows duo was finally able to shine out on the track, however, lost the championship at the last round of the season, in Hungary owing to a technical fault in the car.
However, Hill chose to part his way in 1998, and went to Jordan while Arrow saw a huge decline in the next few years. Although, the 2000 season brought a ray of hope for the team with the Renault-based Supertec engine and Orange sponsorship; it was not very
long lasting. By the end of 2002, after having a long struggling season and unable to find any financial relief the team finally collapsed in summer.
It was not very soon that Walkinshaw's TWR group also met severe problems but still his love for the sport kept him intact with it. The last few years of life saw him closely related with the Australian team, V8 Supercar touring car series.
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