Top 20 finish for race team

UQ’s motor racing team has returned home from its international race debut in England with a top 20 finish.

Spinouts, an oil leak and a cracked engine meant the team finished 18th out of 54 teams at the English Formula Student competition last month.

The UQ team had been in third place until an endurance race when it was black- flagged for leaking oil on a marshal’s foot in the pits.

The students designed, built and raced their own car which was judged on its cost, design, presentation, manufacturability, acceleration, handling, endurance and fuel economy.

A team of six engineers – Mark Fenning, Frank Evans, Michael Plouffe, Nick Myers, Tania Rautenbach and Michael Atherden, flew to England to race.

UQ team manager Michael Atherden said the team’s best performance was winning the acceleration stage over 75 metres.

Mr Atherden said the team had lost points for several spinouts but it was a cracked engine, pointed out by a colleague from the University of Toronto, that tested them.

The engine was quickly welded and fixed but an over-tightened zip-tie the next day would cause the oil leak that cost them 350 points and kept them out of the winners circle.

“Had we finished that event, we would have been third,” Mr Atherden said.

He said UQ’s final placing was disappointing but a learning experience.

“It was a little bit disheartening.

“Still, we learned heaps and we got lots of good feedback on the car and that’s what it’s really all about.”

A team from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University won overall.

The UQ team and car will be on display at the Gold Coast Indy in October before its next Australian race at the University of Victoria from December 2.

For more information contact Mr Atherden (phone: 0438 818 289, email: fsae@mailbox.uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (phone: 3365 2619, email: m.holland@uq.edu.au)