WHAT’S IN THE WORKSHOP – MTEC

What’s In The Workshop MTEC – Photo: Supplied

A development program centred around providing a pathway for young drivers to enter Europe prepared and a 200mph motorbike form the basis of Toyota Racing Series team MTEC’s activity during the enforced break.

By HEATH McALPINE

Speaking with Auto Action during a test session at Winton, MTEC’s Bruin Beasley explained his program, which hopes to find a future Australian Formula 1 driver.

“We’ve got some Formula 4 cars that we’ve been using for testing with karting kids to get them ready to move onto the next stage in Europe,” Beasley told Auto Action.

“The two kids that we’re working with at the moment we’re going to go to Europe this year and do some testing with teams to get them ready for 2021. Obviously, we haven’t been able to do that due to COVID-19 so we’ve put our heads down and completed some testing. We’ve been hiring race tracks and doing one-on-one days, which has been really good.”

The aim of this program is to prepare drivers by introducing prospective drivers to the same cars that they will encounter in Europe, while also trying to increase networks at the same time.

“The aim is, once things open up to take them to Europe,” Beasley said. “Discussion have been had with teams with the expectation that kids stay and do some Formula 4 racing next year.

“We’re facilitating the deals over there and doing all the ground work here before we take them over. We can test, teach, then introduce them to the right people to hopefully make them into Formula 1 drivers.”

A long-time project of Beasley’s is a 200mph bike, featuring a rear-mounted R1 engine surrounded by plenty of custom components that he had planned to take to the legendary Bonneville salt flats in the US, but he has devised a program that will kick off at Lake Gairdner in South Australia next year.

“With it being so busy over the past 18 months, I haven’t had a chance to do anything so while things have been down I put it all pretty much back together and hopefully later next week it will be finished,” Beasley said.

“We are hoping to do some test runs at an airport before going to Lake Gairdner next year and see what happens.”

The aim is to hit 200mph, which is believed to be an Australian record for its class and if all goes well the bike could be bound for Bonneville.

What’s your team currently working on? Let us know at [email protected] and we could feature your team in our next ‘What’s In The Workshop’ feature

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