The MTAQ Racing Team had its final hit out for 2018 in November at Round 5 of the CAMS Queensland Racing State Championships.

It’s been a year of highs and lows for the team. In March, a brilliant, and problem free, run in the Federal Tyres Excel Challenge at Bathurst saw driver David Wood pilot the Excel to a 3rd place finish. Unfortunately, niggling mechanical issues plagued the car through the year and while the Excel, when fit and healthy, was a match for any other car on track, those issues meant a serious championship challenge never materialised.

Round 5 at Warwick’s Morgan Park Raceway was representative of the year – a weekend of highs and lows and a ‘what might have been’.

“Friday practice went reasonably smoothly,” said David. “We did try new brake pads from an alternative manufacturer to see if we could make a gain in the braking performance of the car, but while they were good for a lap or two, they didn’t give us any longevity, so we chose to stick with the combination we had been running. We’ve earmarked that area for further investigation in the off season.

“We did some set-up work but didn’t really hit the sweet spot. However, we were still able to set a best lap time at the circuit on Friday afternoon, so we were looking strong for Saturday.”

With things looking rosy, it was a disappointment that the team managed only an 11th-place starting position following qualifying – a result that saw them put Fridya’s practice day tyres back onto the car.

“Doing that was like the waving a magic wand,” said David. “The handling balance returned, and the car was quick again.”

Aggressive racing in a well-balanced car saw David fight his way to a 5th place finish in the first race, but while the team’s confidence grew with the result, they were quickly brought back to earth when slugged with a 10-second time penalty for a start-line infringement – a penalty that saw them moved back to 13th position on the starting grid for race 2 instead of the expected 5th.

Battling the disappointment, another aggressive drive from David to finish 6th in race 2 was further proof that when car and driver are on song, they are a match for anyone.

“I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed race 2,” said David. “We were absolutely hauling in the lead group at the back end of the race and we were the fastest car on the track in the dying stages.

“The car is terrific over a distance and It was a terrific race, but we simply just started too far back. This has been the story of our year.”

After a good result to end Saturday’s racing, confidence was high going into race 3 on Sunday, and things got off to a good start. David had piloted the Excel into 5th by the second corner and was on the bumper of the four-car leading group. However, the mechanical gremlins that seemed to have disappeared, suddenly returned with a vengeance.

“Halfway round the first lap, the abhorrent luck that has plagued our year struck again and the gearbox failed, putting us out for the remainder of the weekend,” said David. “It was another bitter blow, especially after Saturday’s huge effort.

“The component that failed – the gear selector fork – is a common weakness with the Excel gearbox, and everybody is running the ‘gearbox gauntlet’. In fact, 2017 champion Brock Giblin broke the same component on the same lap. At every race meeting someone has this issue, and there is an update coming in the 2019 rules that will allow us to custom-make our own replacement part. We haven’t had a problem with our transmission in the time we have been in the class, and we carefully service the gearbox periodically . . . it’s just one of those things.

“That capped off what has been a bit of a horror year for us, but not once has our team given up or lost spirit, and that just makes us all the hungrier for success, and we are committed to delivering in 2019.

“One interesting fact from this year was that Frank Mammarella, who won the championship, didn’t win a race, didn’t get a pole position, and never took out a fastest lap.

“He was, however, a model of consistency – he finished every race and was always around the front pack somewhere. It was a textbook way of winning a title.

“Had it not been for our issues, I wonder what might have been!”

Source: Motor Trader E-Magazine (December 2018)

13 Dec 2018