David’s Diary – Warwick Weekend

The 2nd Queensland championship round for Hyundai X3’s was certainly a wild affair – and our MTAQ racing team was in the thick of the action as usual!

Friday afternoon’s practice sessions were a bit of a write off, as we chased some wheel alignment issues which killed our track time. We developed a work-around for it Friday night so we were all good to go for Qualifying on Saturday morning despite not getting time to really tune for the conditions. Qualifying went really smoothly for us, and yielded the 3rd fastest time in a tightly packed session. This was really a big achievement given where we were last time at Morgan Park, and Friday’s niggles!

Race 1 started strongly as well, running along in the opening laps in 3rd after a good jump. Didn’t quite have the pace of the leading pair, as I had to push very, very hard to keep in touch. Ultimately, pushed a bit too hard and came unstuck – running wide at Turn 1 and spinning. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have been a bit more savvy and just taken the 3rd place – but I felt that there was a chance that the leaders would drift back to me later in the race if I keep pushing. That is racing though, The car just couldn’t go as fast as I tried to make it go and made the decision to chase rather than consolidate. I will wear it!

We rejoined 14th, and came home 12th, not after some more drama with contact with another competitor on the last lap whilst trying a rather daring overtaking move. The car broke a wheel but I was able to limp it to the finish line. I was pretty dirty on myself Saturday night, as with the way the races work (starting the next race in the finishing order of the previous) it killed our weekend, as we were genuine top 3.

Sunday morning was a new day, and the morning’s race 2 was absolutely chaotic. One of the craziest races I have been involved in! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make much headway advancing one spot to 11th. Every time I started to advance an incident in front would hold me up, and got re-passed a few times avoiding other people’s drama. It made for some cool in-car video, but just underscores why it is so critical to Qualify at the front – once you are buried in the pack, it is like being in a warzone. Very frustrating!

So for Sunday’s main race of the weekend, we started buried in 11th. We made a few changes to the car and it was an absolute rocket. The race opened up for me nicely after some initial mayhem and got into some clear track by lap 3 by which time we were 8th.  With the leading group quite spread out, we were able to make up tremendous distance. Picking off car after car, we crossed the finish line in 4th, clamped to the bumper of 3rd. Given a few more laps we had pace to get to 2nd, so basically we ended the weekend back where we started, and another case of “what might have been”.

Still, there is plenty of positives to take away from the weekend.  4th place is our best finish so far, 3rd our best qualifying result and since our first visit to Morgan Park in May to the weekend, we have improved our fastest lap by over 2 seconds – and average race pace by almost 3. This improvement is just mental, and our run through the field in the feature race got everyone’s attention. A lot of Hyundai pits were pretty shocked with the pace we had, and certainly considering how new we are to the game. We aren’t that far off race winning pace and we have another batch of improvements and upgrades to come – it is now very much just a matter of time before we can breakthrough.

Again, the weekend threw up a few challenges to our team and our MTAI apprentices responded brilliantly. I cannot ask for more from the boys, they are cool and calm under pressure and for young guys learning their craft are tremendous problem solvers. Well lead by our Crew chief John, and well fed and watered by Mel who is our team mum, feeding and making sure everyone is looked after. We have great team harmony and morale is high!

Special thank you to Marcello – for all of the late nights he has stayed back with us working on the car, and the effort in organising the boys. Employee of the year!

Our next event presents a massive challenge – our biggest yet. The Australian Hyundai Championships in November, where we go and take on the best in the game from across the country on a foreign track. (Wakefield Park, Goulburn NSW). We have a lot of work to do between now and then, but with some more improvements and a bit more speed I am confident that we can make a pest of ourselves there. If we can jag a top 10, I think that would be a tremendous achievement. Let’s see how we go!

Again, thank you to everyone for your continual support of the MTAQ Racing team – without all of the support we couldn’t go and do what we do.

Check out the photos for the full damage!