SEAN Walkinshaw is hoping for an upturn in fortunes for Nissan GT Academy Team RJN after a disappointing weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Contact early in the six-hour race resulted in a puncture and a 14th-placed finish in the Pro-Am class at the third round of the Blancpain Endurance Cup.

But the Chipping Norton driver remains positive and now turns his attention to the Total 24 Hours of Spa, which begins on July 28.

He said: “All of the guys in the team were obviously unbelievably disappointed with how the race started, but it was just one of those things – nothing we could do.

“After the car was repaired we all had very good stints, had good pace and raced well and I was happy with my performance.

“After the puncture, and the damage from the contact, we had to forget about race position and just concentrate on learning as much as we could for Spa.

“That’s the biggest race of our year by far, so hopefully we’ll be able to go there and have some better fortune.”

Teammate Matt Simmons made a good start from 18th, climbing to 12th before contact to the right-rear resulted in a puncture.

Despite having a new wheel fitted, he was forced to return to the pits with the earlier damage causing further problems.

But once the issue had been solved, they moved from 20th to 14th as Walkinshaw completed the final stint.

They are next in action in the series’ sister competition, the Blancpain Sprint Cup, at the Nurburgring this weekend.