Chipping Norton’s Sean Walkinshaw bounced back from rolling his car in qualifying to post the best result of his Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship career with a hard-fought eighth place at the Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire.

After an impressive performance in round eight qualifying, the 18-year-old walked away uninjured after his MTECH Lite car came to rest upside down after being pitched into a barrel roll in a freak accident in round nine qualifying.

But following superb repair work overnight by his team, Walkinshaw finished eighth in round eight at the Dalton-on-Tees track after at one stage fighting his way up to fifth, with Josh Webster taking victory.

Despite his accident in round nine qualifying, the Chipping Norton racer still managed to post the ninth fastest time for the second race.

But he was the victim of two very robust passing attempts, before being hit from behind and sent into a spin, which led to a damaged front wing and nose cone.

After a visit to the pits, Walkinshaw returned to the track to finish 18th as Webster completed a double.

Walkinshaw, who is 16th in the standings, commented: “It’s really frustrating, but we’ve had good pace here which is encouraging, I’m happy with that.”

He is in action at the InterSteps Championship at Thruxton this weekend.