NOOSA driver Ben Walsh has secured the 2015 Bathurst Masters Cup Championship in an incident-packed round of racing.
Miss Moneypenny’s owner Walsh claimed the title as part of round five of the Aussie Racing car championship, held in conjunction with the SuperCheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
Walsh, supported by Dr Ink Tattoo Removal, Australia’s leading tattoo removal clinics, ran consistently in the top five all weekend.
However, it could have all come unstuck in race three when he managed to narrowly avoid an accident that ended up as an international news headline around the globe.
However Walsh’s team-mate Damien Flack wasn’t quite so lucky.
Flack pulled alongside Walsh at the fastest part of the circuit, the Conrod Straight, in the battle for third place.
He received a slight tap from behind as he pulled alongside Walsh, spearing the car left directly across the front of Walsh’s car, missing him by inches, and resulting in him flipping the car 12 times, clearing a safety fence and then catching fire.
Flack was pulled from the wreck unconscious and taken to the trackside medical centre where he regained consciousness before being airlifted to a Sydney hospital.
“It was an extremely scary time for all involved while we waited for news from the medical staff about Damien’s condition,” Walsh said.
“It all happened so quickly and I only saw the very beginning of the accident but immediately thought that this was going to be very serious.
“We were all extremely relieved when we were told that Damien had woken up.”
Flack suffered 12 broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a punctured lung and is expected, in time, to make a full recovery.
Walsh went out to race again in race four, starting from third position on the grid for the final race, which was also cut short due to another incident.
After the points were tallied, he came out as winner of the Masters Cup.
“I was extremely pleased with how competitive we were this weekend at what is the biggest race of the year at one of the most demanding circuits in the world,” he said.
“After not having competed at Bathurst for 16 years, this was always going to be a huge task, but the team delivered me a competitive car and I really feel that I was driving well enough to extract the maximum performance from the Dr Ink Tattoo Removal car.
“One of the best parts of the weekend for me was receiving a text from Damien whilst he was in hospital congratulating me.”
Walsh is set to hit the track again in five weeks’ time at round six of the Aussie Racing Car Championship to be held at Phillip Island in Victoria.
