FEATURE: HYUNDAI EXCEL RACING – BUDGET PRICED SPECIALS

Hyundai Excel Racing – Budget Priced Specials

One of Australia’s fastest growing categories doesn’t involve a V8, it doesn’t involve a model of car with a distinguished motorsport pedigree, it involves a model that was an average at best road car, but has proven to be an excellent introduction to tin top racing

Hyundai Excel’s at Phillip Island

HYUNDAI EXCEL racing. Motorsport purists would turn their nose up at such a proposition, but it is one of the fastest growing classes in Australian motorsport, if not the fastest, and it’s no accident.

Each state has their own association with close to 200 of the Korean hairdresser cars racing on circuits across Australia, with the most strongly supported being, ironically, the last state to jump on board, Victoria. A whopping 40 Excels have entered each of the three Victorian State Racing Series rounds at Sandown, Phillip Island and Winton, while in other states the average entry is in the 30s.

Hyundai Excel’s at Sandown

It may be a surprise to some that the Excels have such strong entries but not for the father and son team that head the Victorian Excel Racing Association, Nathan and Neville Blight.

“Six cars entered for the first round at Winton and my father Neville thought straight away that this was just going to take off if it was done correctly,” explained Nathan.

“So he pretty much grabbed the bull by the horns and steered it towards CAMS, who then got Peter Avard involved and we became CAMS affiliated.

“We had to fight to get grids. They didn’t want to know us at first and they just thought a bunch of cowboys at first, so they weren’t really that helpful at the start. PIARC helped us a bit with August Access, which was our first standalone event.

“We thank David Vernall from the MG Car Club. He gave us our first run at Sandown, he said bring me 15 cars and we had 14, then we went back with 30 and then came back with 48. They were stoked.”

Hyundai Excel’s at Sydney Motorsport Park

For the Series X3 New South Wales, the category hasn’t had as rapid growth compared to Victoria, but is equally as strong thanks to the accessibility, which is shown through the range of competitors the class attracts.

“Our average grid is the high 20s to 30 cars every race now, it’s just gone from strength to strength and we haven’t gone backwards,” explained President Mike Ridings. “We cater for people like young go-karters that are stepping up and getting into a car. It starts with young drivers and goes all the way up to guys that have raced karts for 20 years, or have raced a variety of cars.”

The success of the category can be attributed to a couple of things, a, the cost effectiveness of the class and, b, the racing in the class, which is constant throughout the field. Though, as every racing driver knows, the will to go faster is an addictive desire, but it’s a desire that drives the costs of racing up, which is not in the spirit of the category. Each state continues to keep the class cost effective with telemetry being one of the key areas this happens.

“Data is a real aspect of racing these days, if people can look at the app and see the basic telemetry then that’s reasonable. I mean you’re talking $1500-$3000 for a MoTec and that’s not what the class is for,” explained Circuit Excel SA President Nathan Green.

“Trying to police this stuff is difficult and with a camera, an interesting argument was brought forward that you can use a camera, but that is actually more labour intensive than an app that you can get on your phone, which is pretty cheap and easy. You can’t eliminate everything, it’s a bit like in-car communications, a lot of people including myself are not a fan of it but it is one of those aspects that, as an entry level class, a lot of people want to learn that aspect of the category.”

Neville Blight added, “We don’t want the rules to change, they are going to stay the same and teams come along with different things they want to do, and we’ll listen to them, but if it’s an expensive modification, it just won’t happen. I don’t know of any real tweaks that we’ll do at the moment, all we’ll try and do is keep it where we’ve got them. The formula is pretty good at the minute and we’ll try and keep it there.”

Hyundai Excel’s at Mallala

Four suspension packages have been homologated for each Excel Series though Victoria have gone it alone in choosing one of the suspension packages as a control item. The Blights hope that this regulation will be taken on board by the other states, though the other states don’t have an issue with the current set of regulations.

“It’s been an improvement to the cars [changing to coilovers],” said Ridings, “but it hasn’t made that bigger difference because last year we had every suspension manufacturer in Queensland, including the original Pedders OEM suspension win races and the Pedders was on Pole.”

“There is a lot of debate about suspension, and that will probably go on forever,” added Green. We’ve gone to coilover suspension, but if it was all fixed and one spring, one shock package it would be easier to manage, but for whatever reason we have ended up with a coilover. It gives drivers some experience of how to do some basic tuning on the car. It’s a compromise, yes part of the field will get quicker, but people can learn some of these basic adjustments.”

A planned tender for a sole suspension supplier is currently in the works with the goal for it to come into effect in 2020. The growth of the class has been rapid and will continue to be thanks to it filling a void that many others, namely HQs and Geminis have grown out of.

“The medium term outlook has got to be good, there is plenty of interest, plenty of cars, plenty of parts available, parts are cheap, they’re reliable as all buggery, and they’re not very popular,” Green enthused. ”The rules are pretty reasonable at the moment, they do a pretty good job of keeping things cost effective, I think there’s a few we need to keep an eye on, but I think it’s quite manageable and that the three to five year outlook on the category looks good.”

STATE VS STATE

Several big national events for the Excel’s

THE EXCEL Nationals follows the same principle that Improved Production and the Saloon Car Associations by holding an annual Nationals weekend designed for the best of the best, which will be at Wakefield Park this year. A part from the Nationals, there are several marquee events that continue to attract interstate visitors.

In August, Ipswich hosts the Shannons Nationals where the Excels will feature on the bill for the first time, then a couple of weeks after Mallala hosts the Ryan Pannowitch Memorial Trophy. The Island Magic event held in late November at the Island is another big event that already attracts interstate competitors.

The biggest event for the Excels next year will be the Bathurst 6 Hour support races where 11 cars from each state will feature on the grid at Easter. This has taken sometime to organise and agree on but promises to be a big event.

The Hyundai Excel Nationals will be held at Wakefield Park

By HEATH McALPINE

Article originally published in Issue 1713 of Auto Action.

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