The MTAQ Racing Team has returned from it’s final hit out of 2018 on the weekend. It was a case of a bit ‘more of the same’ for us – a weekend of highs and lows and a ‘what might have been’. You all know by now that our racing adventures are never dull! And so this weekend continued that trend…

Friday practice for us went reasonably smoothly. We did try a new brake pad from an alternative manufacturer to see if we could make a gain in the braking performance of the car, but whilst they were good for a lap or 2, didn’t give us any longevity so chose to stick with the combination we had been running and earmarked that for further investigation in the off season. We did some set-up work, but didn’t really hit the sweet spot – but the car was still able to set our personal best lap at the Warwick circuit on Friday afternoon, so we were looking strong for Saturday.

For Qualifying Saturday morning, I had been saving our best tyres to use in this session – 2 front tyres in particular. These tyres were carefully roaded in at the Queensland Raceway test and should have been cherry ripe for the task. But for some reason, the car is very sensitive to tyre condition – and the tyres didn’t work as well as we had hoped – which resulted in a lap time only good enough for 11^th. In my 3 fast laps in Qualifying, were all within 0.06 of a second – so it was consistent ! just not quite quick enough.  If we had repeated our Friday time, we would have been 3^rd – so the car was certainly capable of running at the sharp end.

Why those tyres didn’t work is an utter mystery – as there is no plausible explanation as to why. There is nothing wrong with the tyre, maybe it was still just a fraction too new but it is something we will delve deeper into in the off season.

We swapped back to our Friday tyres for Race 1 Saturday afternoon, and like the waiving of a magic wand, the handling balance returned and the car was quick again – which was pleasing.  We went straight on the charge, carving through the field to finish a fighting 5^th.  We were the only car in the field to make any positions up in big quantity and we had put ourselves back in the hunt, with some aggressive racing against quality opposition. The cars are so evenly matched it is very hard to make any ground, so it was a terrific redeeming performance, and we were rapt with the outcome as we were ‘back in the game’.

But, unfortunately, the officials didn’t see it that way.

Post race we were slugged with a 10 second time penalty for a start line infringement. At the start of that race, apparently I had rolled over my grid position marker before the lights went out.  The starting procedure of the race is that the field is shown a board 5 seconds before the lights come on. When the lights go out, we go. My procedure is to bring the clutch and throttle up and balance them when the lights come on ready for the jump – which I did, but the clutch bit and crept slightly and the car edged forward. I did stop the car, and wait, and then the lights went – so I felt that we had complied with the rules that the car was not moving when the lights went out and we did not jump the start in any way. We certainly didn’t gain any advantage from it – in fact the opposite!

But after a friendly debate with the stewards, the start line judge of fact had ruled that the car was outside of it’s grid box when the lights went out. Even though I had redressed and not gained any advantage, the national competition regulations state clearly that it is an automatic penalty and no redress can occur. The penalty is a sliding scale based on severity, with 10 second time penalty post race being the minimum.

I am ok with that.

Rules are there for everyone to abide by, and we have to accept the umpires decision. All of the officials are volunteers that give up their weekends to work so we can go racing and I have always had an enormous respect for those that do what is often taken for granted. They certainly have no agenda to punish people, but are there to enforce the rules fairly. We always want to be professional and polite, so thanked them for hearing me out and for taking the time for explaining their position.

Even though our infringement was ridiculously small, it meant we had been pushed back and had to start race 2 from 13^th position, instead of 5^th.

Coming through the field in full attack mode is always fun.. and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed Race 2. Just to prove that Race 1 was no fluke, we charged back through to finish 6^th. We were absolutely hauling in the lead group at the back end of the race – we were the fastest car on the track in the dying stages. In fact, the last lap of the race was faster than our qualifying time…

The car is terrific over a distance and looks after it’s tyres really well. It is puzzling that it can’t produce pace in a single lap form in qualifying but can pound out laps like a machine in races!  It was a terrific race but we simply just started too far back. This has been the story of our year…

So we were back in the game, again!  And the lead group certainly knew that they had to look over their shoulders come Race 3 and 4 on Sunday.

After a good rest Saturday we were all super excited for Sunday as we felt starting off 6^th we had a real chance to get to the podium. Race 3 started well for us, moving into 5^th by the 2^nd corner and right on the bumper of the 4 car leading train. We were right where we wanted to be with the lead group neatly lined up in front of us ready to be picked off as the race wore on. With the longer race distances for Sunday, I felt we had a big chance to at least be 2^nd or 3rd.

But half way around the first lap, this abhorrent luck that has plagued our year struck again – with the Gearbox failing and putting us out for the remainder of the weekend.  It was another bitter blow especially after Saturday’s huge effort in getting to the lead group – twice. I couldn’t believe it.

The component (Gear selector fork) that failed is a very common weakness with the Excel gearbox, and everybody is running the ‘gearbox gauntlet’. In fact, 2017 Champion Brock Giblin broke the same component the same lap I did.

Every race meeting someone has this issue, and there is an update coming in the 2019 rules that allow us to custom make our own replacement part to strengthen and prevent this problem. We have never had a problem with our transmission in the time we have been in the class, and carefully service the gearbox periodically. It is just one of those things.

And so that fittingly capped off what has been a horror year for us, and one we can now close the chapter on and start to think towards 2019.

The Queensland Excel Championship was decided, with Frank Mammarella winning a well deserved championship. Frank is a lovely guy, and we get along very well. One of the most interesting stats from this season, is that Frank didn’t win a race, didn’t get a pole, and never took out a fastest lap. He was though, an absolute model of consistency and 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 want might had been…

It has been a year where we have had to overcome a wide variety of tripwires! But not once has our team given up nor lost spirit and that really just makes us all the more hungry for success and committed to delivering in 2019. We certainly have had a good go at using up all the bad luck this year so we can replace that with good luck next year! We have had some great moments – including our Bathurst Podium against the best Excel field in history to date.

We have also achieved our best race result (2nd) and also lowered at PB laps at both Warwick and Queensland raceway but significant margins across the course of the season – so there are plenty of positives to take out of our campaign. When luck goes our way, we are a genuine threat.

This “Excel Everest” isn’t getting any easier to climb – The rate at which the competition just keeps ramping up is insane, but it is a fantastic challenge and one that we take on with enormous passion.  No one ever got anywhere by quitting – and hard work and dedication can only end in success, it is basic law of nature. We will give the car a freshen up in the off season, and go back through all the systems to make sure we come out stronger and faster. I will also be avoiding ladders, black cats, mirrors…

2019 will be a watershed year for Excel racing, as the class continues to explode. There are some terrific new events in the pipeline that I will be telling you all about shortly!

Until then, Thank you to all for the terrific support across the season – we cannot do it without all of you and deliver our program.

Thank you again,

David Wood – MTAQ Racing Driver

20 Nov 2018