The Queensland Hyundai X3 Racing Series Championship reached its climax on December 2-3 with its final meeting at Morgan Park Raceway in Warwick.

And it was a race meeting of well-deserved highs and one undeserved low for the MTAQ Racing Team as the meeting – which began with a season’s-best performance – came to a crunching halt following a catastrophic, and explosive, failure of the Excel’s engine.

Things had looked very rosy at the start of the weekend however. After a long and sometimes difficult year, the steady improvement in the car’s performance was clear in Race One and it behaved flawlessly as driver David Wood piloted the Excel to a 3rd-place finish after qualifying 5th.

Hopes were high for the rest of the weekend following that performance and Race Two began with much promise. Starting third on the grid, David swiftly moved to 2nd spot and was pushing strongly for the lead when a technical glitch turned serious with the engine failing dramatically in a cloud of smoke.

“Saturday was a good day,” said David. “The car wasn’t perfect, and we had to make a few suspension adjustments, but Race One went very well. We got up to 3rd on lap two and were all over the bumper of the second-place car but didn’t quite have enough to get past.

“We made a few changes to the car before the first race on Sunday and on the opening lap we went from 3rd to 2nd and we were right on the bumper of first.
“Then the engine dropped to three cylinders. I thought it might have been an electrical problem and I backed off ready to bring it into the pits, but the engine blew before I got there!”

And blow up it certainly did. Subsequent investigations would reveal that, amongst other things, the big end bearing had seized, and the number one piston had exploded – the evidence laying in a million pieces in the sump.

“It wasn’t a seismic bang, it was actually quite gentle” said David. “But I started hearing metal bits hitting the underside of the car and all I could see out the back was smoke. And we were spitting oil and bits of the engine all over the track. That certainly made life exciting for the blokes behind me and on the next lap the whole field came through the corner where we had left oil only to spin out onto the grass!”

While the reason for the blow-up is uncertain, the damage is complete enough to warrant a new engine build for next season –  a job that should certainly be a challenge for the support crew and other MTA Institute apprentices who are going to take on the task.

While the Hyundai X3 Series finale did not go the MTAQ Team’s way, the season itself has been a positive and rewarding one.

A 10th-place finish in Round One and an 8th in Round Two, along with solid performances at Shannons National events in August and November, only partly reflected the development and improving performance of the car, while the Race Team program itself has more than fulfilled the purpose of its creation, which was to ensure that MTA Institute apprentices – and the Support Crew of Elliott Lemmon, Will Salmon and Gerard Field – have been introduced to the motorsport sector of the industry.

“The benefits of the Racing Team program have been far-reaching,” said Marcello Riotto, MTA Institute Operations Manager and the man overseeing the Institute’s involvement in the program. “Obviously, the exposure for our brand has been great – a lot of people have seen the car and it generates plenty of interest and conversation amongst apprentices at the Institute, which is exactly what we wanted.

“On top of that, many hands have worked on the car,” he added. “About 60 apprentices have worked on it across all sectors – from electrical, mechanical, to panel and paint. And it has been their project. We have left them to tweak it and come up with solutions to problems. It really has been tremendous and while it has been a learning experience for them, it has been one for us too.”

For the Support Crew trio, who will be joined by at least two additional members next year, the season has been fun and challenging and given them a clear glimpse into motorsport – a sector of the auto industry in which they all aspire to work.

“It has been great, a real eye-opener,” said Will. “I’ve seen some cool cars, made some great contacts and I can’t believe how well we have done. We had one test day all season – essentially doing all our development at the track – and yet we are up there with teams that have had four years running these cars. It has been great to be involved.”

“I have always been interested in the performance side of things and this hands-on experience at the track and working for a team has been great,” said Gerard.

“It has been a really sharp learning curve but has solidified my wanting to be involved in motorsport.”

For Elliott, the 2017 MTA Institute Apprentice of the Year, who also recently completed some work experience with Supercar champions Triple Eight Race Engineering, the MTAQ Racing Team project has been a major part of a pretty sensational year.

“I loved the experience!” he said. “Starting with a small ‘get-about’ car and making it into a race car brought a whole new list of challenges. While we chased our tail for parts of the year, we always learnt more about the car after each incident and though our engine blew in the final event, the car was running in the top three which is proof our work and knowledge was paying off.

“In conversations with a couple of people at Triple Eight, I was told that if they hadn’t had this sort of ‘back of pit-lane’ experience – working with minimal equipment and parts – then they would not understand as much as they now do about motorsport. It really challenges you to use your brain to think how you can keep in the race and winning.

“The project has helped me network and make new connections that will hopefully open doors to bigger race teams in the future,” he added. “MTA Queensland helped me secure that work experience with Triple Eight Racing and that was absolutely a dream come true. I’m hooked!”

For David Wood, team driver and the man who played an integral role in establishing the team, next year is, he said, looking very promising.

“The rate of improvement that we have shown, to go from nowhere to genuine race contenders in basically four events, is phenomenal,” he said. “The boys in the team have been absolutely outstanding. They have learned so much and been so enthusiastic.

“And I’m proud of how we have been able to put everything together. The support from our commercial sponsors has been terrific and the encouragement and support from the Association has been first class. The program has been an absolute dream.

“We have been able to make a car into one of the top ten in the category in the country and prove that against the best drivers in the country here in Queensland. It has been good fun and next year should be a lot better.”