Well the first Excel Queensland championship round for 2019 has been run and won, and as usual we have had our share of drama and ups and downs in what was a pretty wild weekend. Sadly, we didn’t walk away with the win, but can take an enormous amount of positives from the weekend’s activities.

Friday practice went like a dream for us, in cool and dry conditions the car was very handy straight off the trailer and we were able to tune it across the afternoon and managed to record our personal best lap for Warwick in the final practice session of the day – almost 3/4’s of a second faster than our previous best. I was very happy and very confident we would give pole position a huge shake come Saturday.

However, the weather did us absolutely no favours the following morning. Consistent rain across the evening and morning meant our qualifying session was held in very wet conditions. Great for the farmers in the district, not so good for racing!  Our car set-up isn’t suited to the wet, but still managed a respectable 11th out of 30 for the first race of the weekend.

Race 1 was held in easily the worst conditions I have had the misfortune to experience in 22 years of motor sport. The rain was absolutely torrential by that stage, and visibility was near zero. Again our luck decided to abandon us, with water getting into the electrical system on the warm up lap for the race, so I came into the pits to see if we could do something. The team worked quickly and we were able to start the race from the pit lane. I joined the field last, near 20 seconds behind. Just to give myself a bigger challenge, the car aquaplaned off the road on the first lap and had to tour the outfield. I was doing literally about 50 kph and the car simply slid off the track whilst going in a straight line! The conditions were stupidly dangerous with rivers of water running across the road. Then just to add some intrigue.. the wipers failed half way around the first lap.. so here I was in lashing rain and no wipers. But with championship points on the line, we had to press on.

I was able to round up a number of cars, and a few slid off in front of us to help our position – and came home 15th. This was important as your starting position for following races is your finishing position from the previous race. By the end of the race I was looking out of the drivers side window at the white lines on the side of the road so I knew when to turn into corners! It was motor racing’s version of ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ – it wasn’t racing, it was a survival contest. But we made it through!

Race 2 was on a drying track. We decided to save our best tyres for Sunday’s feature race – the 50k challenge, so didn’t quite have our peak pace and had a small issue with the fuel system but managed to climb from 15th to 10th across the short race. It was a fairly dull affair, as far as our typical races go. But we grabbed a few more spots in our recovery from last and gave ourselves a top ten starting position for Sunday’s big race, which was the one everyone was gearing towards.

Sunday dawned sunny, cool and clear – which I was very happy about! I knew with our best tyres on the car, and a little fuel tune we would have the pace to really make a dint in the top half of the field, based on what we knew from our friday practice. I felt given the long distance we had a winning chance. I just didn’t understand how much of a chance we were until we got racing. I got a tremendous start, and tore the bottom half of the top ten apart. By lap 4, we had rocketed to 5th and was absolutely hauling in the leaders. In 2 laps I closed the gap to the lead pack of 4 cars from 4 seconds to just over 1 – in the process setting back-to-back fastest laps of the entire race. (and entire weekend).

The car was absolutely immense. Our speed advantage was very apparent, and caught the lead group with relevant ease and immediately set about attacking. I was half way past the 4th place runner when he turned onto my line to try and defend his position – the only problem was our car was already there –  which was completely against the driving code. The result was heavy contact, and tore the valve out of the tyre and damaged the steering. The Tyre went instantly flat – race over.  When I left the track yesterday the stewards were deciding on the appropriate penalty, but nothing was going to get back the opportunity we had and I was in no mood to sit in a stewards hearing.

I am certain with the velocity we had, we would have won that race. I had 10 laps to pick off the 3 lead cars, with speed on our side and knowing how our car looks after it’s tyres, we would have had that speed throughout the journey.

Motor racing can be a cruel sport, but this was by far the cruelest event we have had yet. After driving from the back of the field across the 3 races – passing 26 cars – in horrendous conditions to start with, and drove super hard to get back to the front, we deserved a better outcome.  We did get a championship point for the fastest lap of the race, and I am confident we could have gone much quicker with some clear track.

But that is sport. That is the nature of it, the unpredictability and the complete lack of guarantee of anything is what makes it addictive.

But there are a lot of positives to take away.

We have worked very, very hard in the off season to try and ‘jump the curve’ in terms of development – hours and hours and hours of research, working through the parameters, and thinking of various solutions has been validated. When the cars loaded up to head home Sunday afternoon, our car was the fastest car – by a margin. We didn’t have to scratch and claw our way through the field like we normally do – we just blasted through. So that is very heartening, that the hard work is bearing some fruit and our decision last year to head off on our own in terms of set-up philosophy was the right one. And, we haven’t even got all the new goodies on the car yet!  Some of our cleverest developments were left at home just to make sure the direction we were on was correct. Now we have proved it is, we can complete the work and hopefully that yields more speed gain.

Even though you can have the fastest toy at your disposal, the weather killed us early and we didn’t really hit the scoreboard for the speed we had. had the weekend been full dry I hate to think what we would have achieved.

All in all, We came out of the round 15th in the championship and with some points (which is a big step up on last year!)  It is a long season and a lot of racing still to go down. I am not panicked as we have the firepower now to get back in the fight. A lot can happen over the course of the season, all we can do is try and win as many races as we can and start to erode the points deficit.

More importantly, the car escaped with next to no damage, and no major mechanical issues. Which is important – because in just over 3 weeks we load up for the biggest race of the year…

The Federal Tyres Excel challenge – Mount Panorama, Bathurst.

Bathurst has been a happy hunting ground for us. Last year we went with no expectations and a car down on power, and still managed 3rd. This year we are much better prepared!  Again we meet the absolute cream of the crop in Excel racing in the country. The best of the best square off on the best track in the country. It is a mouth watering prospect, and the opportunity to take on the best outfit in Hyundai racing in the country – Victorian based squad, Excel Racing Australia – and their reigning national champion in Michael Clemente, and multiple South Australian Champion Asher Johnston. ERA are undefeated across NSW, TAS and SA championships this year and are the white hot favourites as we turn to the mountain.

However,  I am very confident we will give these blokes something to seriously think about. There is a lot of work to do between now and then, but I am very excited to get our “new” car to the mountain and measure it up against the best.

Our luck has to turn soon, and I think Bathurst would be a fitting location to give MTAQ Racing it’s maiden win….

I will have photos and video of the weekend to come

Thank you again for all of your tremendous support!

David