Engineering students get on board a hill climb championship

University of Wolverhampton Race Team students have offered their engineering services to help a competitor taking part in the 2017 British Speed Hillclimb Championship.

The MSA British Hillclimb Championship is a UK competition which runs the length of the country from Devon to Scotland including three off-shore events which are on closed public roads and are held in Northern Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey. 

Jack Hills, 19 from Brighton and Zoltan Szalai, 28 from Szeged, Hungary both studying for a degree in Motorsport at the Telford Innovation Campus (Zoltan is final year, Jack is first year), have teamed up with Graham Wynn OBE, an Honorary Graduate of the University and Chair of the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership.

The students have focused on improving the car’s engineering performance, utilising skills learned on their course and drawing on their experience of working as part of the Race Team which is competing in this year’s F3 Cup Championship.

The driver, Graham Wynn, competes in the competition in a Gould GR55 engine Cosworth HB V8, sponsored by TTC Group UK Plc.

Graham said:  “I wanted to present the car in a professional and organised manner at all British Championship rounds this year and having engineering students on board is really making a difference to my performance.

“I’m aiming to qualify for as many top 12 fastest driver run-offs as possible and hopefully finish in the top 10.  With the help of the race team, this is also an ideal opportunity to promote speed hill climbing to a younger, wider audience.”

Jack said: “The experience has been pretty amazing so far. I get to work on race cars; it’s one of the reasons I chose to study at the University of Wolverhampton.

“On a typical race weekend we prepare the Gould, including fuelling, spanner checks, warming up tyres, and helping to prepare our driver through the use of data taken from each run to see where we can improve our times. 

“It's great that I'm able to gain experience and enjoy the work at the same time, it really complements my degree.”

Anyone interested in studying engineering at degree level should contact the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Picture caption left to right: Jack Hills and Zoltan Szalai.

ENDS

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Date Issued: 19th June 2017