Round 3 of the Hyundai Series X3 Queensland championship was a bit closer to home in August with the race meeting being held at Queensland Raceway (QR) at Ipswich. A special event, the round was held in conjunction with the national Shannons series tour, which meant a bumper crowd turned up to watch several categories of racing take to the track and enjoy two full days of action.

The Friday practice day was also a bit special as, with QR being a short(ish) drive from the MTAQ Racing Team’s home base in south Brisbane, MTA Institute’s Operations Manager Marcello Riotto was able to bring the latest intake of the Institute’s prevocational students out to the track to check out the work of the team. Part of the team’s mission is to introduce and educate students and apprentices about the motor racing side of the automotive industry, and it was a good learning experience for everyone involved.

As for the racing itself, it was another weekend of ups and downs for the team.

QR has never been a hot track for the team which has struggled to be competitive at the circuit in previous visits. However, the car has been lightning fast of late, and there was hope that might translate to some good results. Alas, cruel fate once more stepped in to hamper any hopes of a podium finish at what continues to be the team’s ‘bogey’ track.
Qualifying was intense, but also showed up the importance of team tactics.

QR is effectively four long straights connected by a few hairpin turns and sweepers. Those long straights can be an advantage to those able to run close behind another car and use slipstreaming to gain top-end speed. With many of the teams running multiple cars, the practice of slipstreaming has taken hold for qualifying with team drivers working together to set some cracking qualifying times. It’s a sensible system if you can do it, and it works. For the MTAQ team – a one-car outfit – tyring to beat such tactics is difficult to say the least and although the car was fast, a 9th place qualifying spot was the best that could be achieved. A good result considering, said MTAQ Racing Team driver David Wood.

“We were left to ‘break’ our own air and produce a lap with no assistance,” said David. “I personally was very happy with the lap, but a bit disappointed that it didn’t yield a better starting position.

“Once we went racing, all bets usually are off and the team tactics dissipate a bit,” he added. “We were able to show our speed in Race 1, advancing after getting blocked at the start and we ended lap one in 11th. The race was then brought under safety car to retrieve a car stuck in the gravel trap after a chaotic start.

“We only had a half-a-dozen flying laps in the race but was still able to burst through from 11th to 5th to be right on the tail of the lead quartet when the race was finished. Had we not had the lengthy safety car interruption we would have been right in the mix.”

A strong showing was confirmed by David setting a lap time under the previous lap record and a massive 2.4 seconds better than the MTAQ team’s previous best at the QR circuit. In fact, everyone was quick with four other cars also breaking the old lap record.

A strong Race 1 showing built up hopes for Race 2 but, once again, some terrible luck struck hard . . . literally.

“We made a great start,” said David. “But we got hit in turn one on the opening lap and the result was a puncture of our front left tyre. The driver that drove across us was deemed to be at fault, and while it was not intentional on his part, it hurt us badly and meant that we failed to finish the race. The steering was also damaged and our opportunity to again challenge for a win was thwarted. I was very cranky afterwards!”

The result of this cruel luck meant the team would start Race 3 at the back of the grid. A cold and glorious Sunday morning meant conditions were great for racing and starting in 26th place would see David, an experienced driver in a fast car, tear through the back of the field right from the off.

“Starting at the back always is fun,” he said. “But it does come with massive risk as you have a few drivers at the rear who are just beginning their motor sporting journey and don’t have a lot of experience. You have to treat the situation with some controlled aggression.

“Still, we didn’t hang around and passed eight cars on the opening lap and sliced into 10th by lap 4. Unfortunately, just as we were setting sail for the lead pack, our car began to lose some engine performance. We don’t fully understand why at this stage and we do need to investigate. I think that running in a train of cars and drawing in a lot of heat was a factor.

“We still came home 12th, which from 26th is a very decent outcome. Had we not lost power I who knows how high we may have finished.

“So, we again have missed out on an elusive trophy, but like always we can come away with high heads.

“Our little team is punching well above its weight, as the ‘arms race’ in the class continues to rage. The weight of development that is going on is insane. The bar is getting raised at an alarming rate and keeping up is a challenge and a half.

“Whilst we don’t have the resources of other outfits, or the benefit of multiple cars, we have turned maximising what we do have into an absolute art form. The mantra we have is that there are many little things that we do that most teams don’t bother with. These little things might be small differences, but if you have 20 or 30
of those, they start to add up!

“We continue to work hard and take confidence that our day will soon come. We have a few updated bits coming for the next event which we hope will keep us in the fight.”

Original source: Motor Trader E-Magazine (Aug 2019)

9 Aug 2019