BRITISH GT Championship racer Anna Walewska, from Hindhead, was denied a race finish at Rockingham, the venue for the third round of the national series on Sunday.

An unprecedented sequence of events led to her retirement just 20 minutes into the two-hour race at the Northampton track.

After a difficult qualifying session and a significant amount of work by the team overnight to change the set-up of her Ginetta G55 GT4, the Signal Surveyors-backed driver made a positive start to the race, moving up several positions within the first ten laps.

An untimely safety car meant she was held up amongst the GT3 cars and had to negotiate her way between them once the race restarted.

That was when Anna’s luck completely deserted her. With the GT3 cars fighting each other immediately in front of her, two of them came together, one departing from the track and into the gravel.

Debris from the collision sent stones and gravel across the track and into the paths of the following cars, Walewska’s Team Hard machine included. The car’s dash displayed an error and had to be retired.

As a result, team-mate Callum Hawkins-Row did not get any race time on Sunday.

“It’s a really disappointing way to end a race,” said Walewska, who is an ambassador for Bolton University’s National Centre for Motorsport Engineering. “The car felt great on those opening laps and gave me the confidence to push harder and settle into a good rhythm which, sadly, came to an unexpected and very frustrating end.

“It’s also very disappointing for the Team Hard mechanics and the university students who worked so hard all weekend. Myself and Callum ended with a great car that I didn’t get a chance to deliver with and Callum didn’t get to drive. Onwards and upwards to Snetterton, though.”

The crew will hope to put their difficult start to the season behind them at Snetterton later this month.