What a few months it has been, with the May/June period of the year certainly one of the most exciting for motor sport with famous international events taking place in recent weeks – with the Indianapolis 500, Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans and the Nurburgring 24 hours all playing out. It was great to cheer on the Australians in these events, but this weekend is much more exciting!

The MTAQ Racing team is back on track as we pick up our 2019 championship charge at the 2nd round the Queensland titles – back at familiar territory at Morgan park raceway in Warwick.

It has been a productive 2 months since our last outing at Bathurst over Easter, with the team coming up with a few new tweaks as well as checking over our little rocket. Even though Warwick isn’t geographically as close to us as other tracks, it is our ‘home’ circuit and one that we enjoy immensely. With it’s tight layout, it is tailor made for terrific Excel battles – and I think it will be the case this weekend!

In our 2 hit-outs so far in 2019, we have been very competitive I am happy to say – with the car proving to be fast. Last time at Warwick, we snatched the fastest lap of the weekend and only some atrocious weather conditions and some bad luck in traffic robbed us of a long overdue win. This increase in our pace has been on the back of a lot of work over the summer off-season, and it seems to this point we have been able to get on par with the other front teams in the development curve. However, if you stand still in this game, you get run over – in some cases literally! We know that all the front teams have been working hard to find speed, with a few even venturing interstate to race to test themselves and keep the development happening.

We are quietly confident of a strong performance, and aim to finally shoot this monkey that has been on our back. Starting with a decent championship points haul to get ourselves back in the hunt for the big crown is the really the main priority for the weekend. We are currently 15th after our first round, and I would like to get that a lot higher come sunday evening. With 4 races over the weekend, there is lots of opportunity for us.

The weekend also sees some new faces to the ever expanding Excel ranks – with the series welcoming a host of youngsters. Included amongst the rookies is Jett Johnson, the grandson of racing legend Dick Johnson, and is participating in his first ever car race after an excellent junior career in Karts. Jett is only 15, but has a solid bloodline and the fact that the family has selected Excels to start his car racing career speaks volumes for the quality of the series.

With this rain clearing, It should be a great weekend up on the downs!   Thank you again everyone for the continued support and will update when we get home.

David Wood – MTAQ Racing Team Driver

27 Jun 2019