CHIPPING Norton’s Sean Walkinshaw is in a confident mood after getting behind the wheel for the first time as a Nissan GT Academy Team RJN driver.

The 22-year-old tested his works Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 at the Paul Ricard track in France.

With the first round of the Blancpain GT Series at Misano, Italy, from April 8-10, Walkinshaw is in good spirits.

He said: “The car felt really good and it’s pretty much exactly what I raced last year in Blancpain, the only differences are some set-up changes so nothing I’ve had to adapt to.

“We’re straight into the first round of the Sprint Cup now in Misano next month, no more testing before then, so it’s all about making sure I’m as prepared as possible over the next few weeks.”

The Oxfordshire driver added: “I think we’ve got a really good chance in both the Endurance Cup and Sprint Cup and they should be fantastic championships with the huge grids they’ve announced.

“Having 38 cars in the Sprint Cup is going to mean a lot of action in those short format races – hopefully it won’t mean too many safety cars at Misano.”

Meanwhile, Witney duo James Hall and Simon Bradley impressed in the opening round of the Kick Start Junior Rally Championship at Wigan.

The Hall Motorsport built and Rally Preparation Services supported Citroen C1 pair were seeded sixth junior out of 16 crews.

Hall and Bradley tackled stage one and two, but took a dislike to the short two-mile routes.

Despite the crews best efforts their Citroen was restricted on the straights due to a weaker engine than usual.

But Hall was able to make up for it in the corners, finishing sixth junior overall and fourth English junior.