The first round of the Queensland Hyundai Excel X3 Series was a tough outing for the MTAQ Racing Team. Solid mid-field finishes during the meeting’s four races saw driver David Wood accumulate 48 points and command a respectable 10^th spot on the championship ladder, but niggling problems with the car kept the support crew team of Elliott Lemmon, Gerard Field, Will Salmon and Crew Chief John Zyzniewski busy across the three days.

“We had issues that really didn’t allow us to show what we could do,” said David. “The team was so much better than the result showed.

“I think we can recover pretty quickly and really serve notice at the next few events that we are contenders. I can assure you I do not want to be stuck in the middle of the field!”

With the next meeting – a non-championship round –  not scheduled until the first week of August, there’s time for the team to get together and work out the kinks in the car.

The support crew, together with MTA Institute Operations Manager Marcello Riotto, have already put in some long hours and there has been some outside help too, with Kevin Culley, who runs successful race engineering outfit KPH Racing and rebuilt the MTAQ race car’s engine, visiting the MTA Queensland workshop to give some pointers on the set-up of the car.

While more work needs to be done, there’s growing confidence going into the Shannons Nationals event to be held at Queensland Raceway on August 4-6.

“The next round, being an exhibition event at a national-level race meeting, has attracted Excel racers from other states and championships as well as our own Queensland contingent,” said David. “It will be a pseudo national championship dress rehearsal and there will be very tough competition. If we can get in the front pack and challenge there, we can do it anywhere, against anyone. The aim is to run with, and beat, the Queensland front runners so we can go to the next state championship round with enormous confidence.

“Queensland raceway is a power circuit, so it is absolutely vital that we have our engine spot on for this event. I am confident we will be in the mix somewhere.”

In the meantime, in between testing and working on the car, the Excel will make public appearances at the RACQ Motorfest event on July 9 and the V8 Supercars Ipswich SuperSprint meeting in on July 28-30.

“Around these events, we will have the car on the dyno to double check engine settings and fine tune the power side, and then we will do a track test prior to the next race meeting to try some new things with the suspension,” said David. “It isn’t miles away, just a few little tweaks here and there and I think we will have a pretty fast car.”