Thomas Dobbie Thomson Walkinshaw was born on 14 August 1946 at Mauldslie Farm near Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland. He began racing in 1968 in an MG Midget, progressing through Formula Ford — winning the Scottish FF1600 title in 1969 — and on to Formula Three and Formula 5000. Ford employed him to drive a Capri in the British Touring Car Championship in 1974, and he won his class that year. In 1976 he founded Tom Walkinshaw Racing.
TWR built its reputation on touring cars: the outfit took eleven wins in eleven BSCC races in 1983 with Rover Vitesses, won the European Touring Car Championship in 1984 with a Jaguar XJS, and then delivered one of the most celebrated sportscar programmes of the era, winning Le Mans in 1988 and 1990 and the World Sportscar Championship three times between 1987 and 1991. Along the way TWR brought engineer Ross Brawn to prominence.
Walkinshaw moved into Formula One management in 1991 as engineering director of the Benetton team, which subsequently won the 1994 and 1995 Constructors' Championships (the drivers' titles going to Michael Schumacher). His role at Benetton came under scrutiny during 1994 investigations into suspected use of banned electronic aids and unauthorised modifications to refuelling equipment, though the FIA found no evidence that illegal software had been used in a race.
In 1995 Walkinshaw attempted to purchase 50 percent of the Ligier team from Benetton principal Flavio Briatore with a view to a full takeover, but could not secure 100 percent and withdrew. Instead he acquired the Arrows team, which had spent twenty years in Formula One without a race victory.
Walkinshaw's most audacious move at Arrows came ahead of the 1997 season, when he signed reigning world champion Damon Hill — a driver who had won the 1996 title with Williams — to lead the squad. The team also switched to Bridgestone tyres and used Yamaha engines. Despite the high-profile signing, the car proved generally uncompetitive. Hill's most memorable moment came at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where the Bridgestone tyres gave Arrows a rare advantage over Goodyear-shod rivals: Hill qualified third, passed Michael Schumacher during the race, and led by 35 seconds late in the grand prix before a hydraulic failure dropped him to second. It was as close as Arrows came to a win under Walkinshaw's ownership.
The 1997 season was nonetheless sufficient to earn Walkinshaw the Autocar Man of the Year award that year. By that point the TWR Group employed approximately 1,500 people across the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia and the United States, with Walkinshaw serving simultaneously as managing director of Arrows Grand Prix International.
The Arrows team ran out of money in 2002, sending TWR's racing group into liquidation. The collapse ended Walkinshaw's Formula One career as a constructor after years in which he had been one of the sport's most powerful — and controversial — figures. The Australian arm of TWR's operations was acquired by Holden, though manufacturer ownership rules in the Supercars Championship subsequently forced a divestment.
Walkinshaw died on 12 December 2010, aged 64, from complications arising from cancer. His legacy in British motorsport is substantial: the Le Mans victories and World Sportscar Championships with Jaguar remain the centrepiece of TWR's achievement, and his career as a constructor shaped a generation of engineers. His son Fergus restarted TWR in 2023, while sons Ryan and Sean both remained active in motorsport — Ryan as a team principal of Walkinshaw Andretti United in the Australian Supercars Championship, Sean as a GT racing driver.