Emergency weld saves race team

UQ’s motor racing team has finished fourth in a student racing competition outside Melbourne but still had the quickest car.

From December 2-5, the team raced 22 university teams, including some from the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand, for the Australian Formula Society of Automotive Engineers student competition.

The competition is designed to expose young engineers to practical experience and teamwork by building and racing their own formula-style car, an open wheeled race car with a 600cc Honda motorbike engine.

UQ team manager Michael Atherden said the team’s results were consistent but not spectacular at the University of Victoria Driver Training Centre, Werribee.

Mr Atherden said the team had to reweld the mounting for the car’s drive line but was pleased they won the acceleration event.

Teams made four standing start runs over 75 metres and UQ Racing was the fastest with 4.05 seconds, which corresponded to a 0 to 100 kilometres an hour time of 3.1 seconds.

The team won the same acceleration event at its international race debut in the UK in July.

In the endurance section, UQ Racing came third after a 22 km race around a tight track marked by cones.

Teams were timed and time penalties were applied if cones were hit.

Mr Atherden said UQ Racing hoped to display its car at the Brisbane International Car Show before preparing for its next SAE race in the US in May.

“The car is pretty solid, it would be good to give the drivers more practice before they take on 140 teams in the US.”

Media: 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)