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| BRAZILIAN MUSIC |
WALKER, DAVE
Born 6/10/1941, Sydney South Wales, Australia
Starts:11
Points: 0
Wins:0
Poles:0
Fastest Laps:0
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Walker had been one of the fastest Formula 3 drivers in 1970 and 1971, and was eventually hired as a Lotus works driver. An obviously talented racer at that level, Colin Chapman clearly had big expectations for the Australian. He was given a trial outing in the Dutch Grand Prix of 1971, slated to drive the turbine Lotus 56B. The outing was very rainy, and the experimental car was a handful in the downpour, so Walker crashed. Eventually, Walker got promoted to the Lotus works team for the 1972 season, partnering Emerson Fittipaldi. 1971 was not a good year for Lotus, but Colin Chapman always had something down his sleeve, and one could never count Lotus out. The year did no start well for Walker, though. He started 20th and was disqualified in Argentina, having received outside assistance. Then in South Africa, he also qualified towards the back, in 18th, and finished 10th, while his teammate finished a cool 2nd. Then it all started to crumble for the luckless Australian. While his Brazilian teammate racked up win after win, podium after podium, Walker qualified midfield at best and never came close to scoring. The best qualifying performance was 12th in Nivelles, and the best finish, the 10th in South Africa. Eventually, Emerson won the title in Italy, where Walker was not even fielded (Lotus was being careful, due to an Italian judicial inquiry over Jochen Rindt’s death in 1970), and by the end of the year the writing was on the wall. Dave had squandered a chance of a lifetime! He still tried other categories for a while, including Formula 2, F5000, Interserie, 2 liter protoypes and Formula Atlantic, but eventually found it better to hang up the helmet while he was in one piece. Walker is just one of a long line of drivers who excelled in Formula 3, but were totally out of depth in Formula 1.