MTAQ Racing Team back on the track this weekend for the 4^th round of the 2018 Queensland championships.

For this weekend, we are back at familiar surroundings at the picturesque Morgan Park Raceway in Warwick – a track that we traditionally go well at. The last event at Queensland Raceway was challenging for us in many respects, with some dramas with our engine setting us back for the entire weekend. It was embarrassing for me not having our car at the front where we belong, and the weekend certainly did not yield anywhere near the result I had hoped for, so we have spent an enormous amount of time and effort with the car in a bid to get back to the front of the field. And what a field it is…

This weekend is far and away the toughest field I have ever seen at State level.

It is basically the same field we confronted at the Queensland Raceway invitational round, with our normal state level protagonists we duel with, such as 2017 Champ Brock Giblin and 2018 series leader Rich Peasey. This time we are joined by the front running cars from the rival track attack series. Amongst the group is 2 time national excel champion Cam Wilson, 4 time track attack champion and 2018 series leader Brett Parrish, Prolific Track Attack race winner Scott Green and 2015 Queensland State Champion Chris Donnelly, returning after a hiatus. These guys are all fast, all experienced, and very hard to knock over. There are probably 10-12 cars that could realistically win out of the 29 entered. That says something about the strength of this class of racing!

An enormous challenge indeed – but from our side, I am confident we can give these guys something to chase.

During the mid-season break, prior to the Queensland Raceway round, we had been in talks about forming a technical alliance with another team in a bid to fast track further development. We see this a lot at the higher rungs of the sport, especially in Formula 1 and V8 Supercars whereby teams share resources to help economies of scale, reduce costs and also to accumulate data for development. We have partnered with Phillips Wilson Racing, which is headed up by defending national excel champion Cam Wilson, and long time Excel tuner Pete Phillips. Being Brisbane based, and old friends of mine, it works well. They are embarking on a development program and by having us collaborate and using common components it is a win:win for everyone as we can learn quicker and not erode precious budget. This is a practice a lot of our opposition have been employing for some time and part of the reason for the insanely rapid rate of development in the category, particularly in Queensland.

Phillips Wilson traditionally run in the track attack series, although Cam raced our Queensland raceway round with the first engine evolution from the shop, and promptly won!  The latest evolution of the engine, with latest spec developed in collaboration, is now proudly bolted in our MTAQ car for this weekend. It is brand new so we are hoping it gives us an edge!  Engine power was one area we have been lacking in for some time, and both of us trying to pioneer on our own made little sense, and is also more costly.

Aside from that, we have also been working hard at revisions to suspension – which I am proud to say we have used some innovation in developing and making some custom made components ourselves – exhaust and some electrical revisions, the first stage will be in our MTAQ car this weekend as well.

So we are certainly trying our best to rebound from last event in the strongest possible fashion, and be as competitive as we can in a tough field. It has been a lot of late nights and big days, but we are ready roll. Special thank you to Marcello and Rusty for again helping with some know-how when we were stuck, absolutely invaluable as usual !

The weather in Warwick will also be something of an unknown, with showers forecast for Friday and rain all day Saturday. Considering I haven’t driven the Excel in the rain yet.. it could be interesting!

This race meeting is traditionally the fastest of the year (when dry), with the air temp low and the track crisp so I hope to break the PB lap time we set at our last visit here. That elusive trophy still teases us, but all going well we can corral the opposition and finally pinch one.

Thank you again everyone for the terrific support!