TOM Walkinshaw has made something of an art form out of being in the right place at the right time with the right equipment and right people.

In 1997 his people will include Damon Hill, who, barring personal disaster at Suzuka on Sunday week, will have No.1 on the snout of his Arrows-Yamaha as he joins the Melbourne Australian Grand Prix grid next March.

The speed and dexterity with which Walkinshaw moved to gain Hill's signature should come as no surprise to anyone who has witnessed the rise and rise of a man who drives a business deal as hard and forcefully as he drove racing cars during a distinguished competitive career.

It was Walkinshaw - not the expansive, urbane Benetton figurehead, Flavio Briatore - who swooped to transplant Formula One novice Michael Schumacher from a Jordan into a Benetton cockpit during the summer of 1991.

The single-minded Scot remembers with relish getting Jochen Neerpasch, the then Mercedes motorsport head and Schumacher mentor, out of his bath to broker the deal.

Speaking from his home at Broadstone Manor, near Chipping Norton, Walkinshaw does not believe that motivating Hill, after an abrupt dismissal from Williams, will be a problem. He said: ``I think if you look at my record, I tend to get the best out of drivers. I would expect to get close to Damon and work as a team. He knows that we wanted him, and I don't make false promises.''

Walkinshaw resisted the temptation to gloat over second-guessing the incestuous grand prix paddock and eclipsing fellow-Scot and grand prix proprietor Jackie Stewart by signing Hill.

The head of a 30-company empire, which employs 1300 people and turns over #250m annually, Walkinshaw said: ``Jackie has got his own thing to do, and to be honest, I never saw him as a serious bidder. Eddie Jordan (founder of the Jordan F1 team) was my only serious rival.''

Walkinshaw, when on the rebound from an acrimonious divorce with Benetton's surrogate Ligier team, again moved with speed and picked up an existing, if woefully under-achieving, Arrows F1 outfit. By annexing an active grand-prix team he benefited from the preferential transportation deals which come as part of Formula One Constructors Association membership.

While a Hill-Jordan link was being presumed, the Scot had been in weekly contact with Hill since the Italian Grand Prix. Walkinshaw explained: ``I waited until he was ready. He came up to see our Leafield operation on the Thursday, the deal was signed that night, and we announced it the following day.''

The fact that it remained a well-concealed secret was testimony to another part of Walkinshaw's business, his global automotive consultancy, where strict confidentiality is paramount.

Walkinshaw said it was the visit to the purpose-built Leafield centre, on the edge of the Cotswolds, which convinced Hill that the people, technology, expertise, and planning were all in place to go racing seriously next year. So was the reputed #7m fee for the one-year contract, which implies major commercial backing.

Yamaha, currently struggling with the Tyrrell team, will provide a new V10 engine for the car, and Walkinshaw is convinced a ``redefined and refocused'' approach will produce results.

Complete control is part of the Walkinshaw philosophy but something he never achieved during the highly successful period with Benetton, when as pivotal engineering director, he masterminded Schumacher's two world titles in 1994 and last year.

It is no coincidence that many of the Benetton personnel earned their spurs when TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) was conducting Jaguar's sports car endurance racing renaissance in the late 80s and early 90s.

Walkinshaw emphasised: ``We have come up through the different levels of the sport with our staff. We share a common ambition and I know that we have the elements to go all the way. I truly believe we could pick up a couple of wins next year, and go for the championship in 1998.''

His short-list of drivers consisted of Hill and Schumacher, whom he considers the two fastest and most complete drivers in the world today. Walkinshaw holds the belief that Hill's innate testing and development skills have been instrumental in honing the Williams-Renault of recent years to a virtually constant pitch of superiority.

Technical director Frank Dernie, a former Williams mainstay, is currently working on next year's Arrows-Yamaha, which should test during January.

For a man not given to waving his arms about and seeking public relations ``opportunities'' Walkinshaw has a happy knack of creating surprises. In Paris on Monday, Volvo - using the TWR cache to develop and race its products - unveiled the stunning new C70 coupe, based on the 850 saloon.

Along with a convertible version, the car will be built in Sweden under the AutoNova banner, a company with a 51% Walkinshaw holding and a potential annual capacity of 40,000 cars - more than Porsche.

With Leafield providing the hub of Walkinshaw's corporate world there are satellite operations in Sweden, Australia, and the USA, and modern motoring icons like the Jaguar XJ220 and Aston Martin DB7 were turned into reality by his staff.

The racing curriculum vitae of the softly-spoken son of an East Lothian market gardener included the 1969 Scottish speed championship and the 1984 European touring car driver's title.

One long-serving colleague summed up the Walkinshaw approach. He said: ``Tom is motorsport's version of the Stealth bomber. People don't know he has arrived until it is all over. At the end of the day, it is doing the deal, clinching it, which gives him the biggest buzz.''