Tom Wood, the 12-year-old Kart Racer sponsored by Q8Oils, has had a busy 2014 season contesting the Little Green Man and Super One British Cadet Championships with his team Aim Motorsport and finished the season on a high with a fantastic double at the PFI Circuit at Brandon.
Commenting on this season’s Q8Oils sponsorship, Tom says: "It’s been great to have the support of such a prestigious global company as Q8Oils during the season and I am delighted that I have been able to show my gratitude with some fantastic results.”
Q8Oils is no newcomer to motorsport and can be regularly seen sponsoring drivers, teams and events throughout Europe. Its high-performance, race-proven engine oils – such as Q8 Formula F1 and Q8 Moto SBK Racing – are used in numerous motorsport series including British Touring Car Championships and British Formula 1 Sidecar Championship.
Acknowledged by many as the race of his life and one of the best manoeuvres of the season, Tom went from seventh position to first on the last lap of the final round of the 2014 Little Green Man (LGM) National Championship where, with other drivers going for the inside line to look after their position, Tom took the open wide line at the PFi Circuit in Lincolnshire and went on to win the race and the 2014 LGM Championship 10 points ahead of his nearest rival.
The race and title wins added to an already impressive set of statistics gained during the 2014 season, which included podium finishes for seven out of the eight LGM rounds and a podium finish in his first race in the Minimax class, in which competitors drive bigger, more powerful karts. And, despite losing valuable points due to mechanical issues during two rounds, Tom finished just eight points off third place in the Super One Championship.
Tom has recently been announced as the Official Ambassador for the Donington Park Little Racers’ Kids Cub he helped to launch and these achievements – and acknowledgement as a positive role model in motorsport – have been recognised by Sport England, with Tom being shortlisted for Junior Sportsman of the Year.
Tom has also featured in a recent issue of Motorsport News and was the focus of a spotlight piece for a BBC East Midlands programme, where he was interviewed about his racing career to date and filmed driving supercars with the Race School at Donington Park.
For the 2015 season, Tom will be competing in the Super One Minimax Championship and has signed to 2014 British Champions, RL Racing Department.
Commenting for Curtiss-Wright, Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Industrial division, Kevin Rayment says: “The Industrial division has more than 50 years experience in providing control and feedback solutions for numerous applications and we’re no newcomer to high-octane and motorsport applications where custom sensors are often specified.”
Thanks to the experience gained from its aerospace businesses – where reliability under extreme and hostile conditions is paramount – Curtiss-Wright’s sensors have become a benchmark for motorsport applications and are used in numerous race series including the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Formula One (F1) and Formula Student. In fact, from the moment a leading F1 team adopted a custom-engineered Penny + Giles sensor as part of its revolutionary active suspension system, to today’s unique Hall-effect position sensors, we can proudly boast to have been the first position sensor manufacturer to enter motorsport and have supplied every F1 championship winning team since 1986.
“With a performance to match today’s Formula racing cars, the single-seat Mono required an equivalent level of intuitive direct control, so BAC designers and engineers specified components that were themselves designed and engineered for the racetrack,” says Mr. Rayment.
With motorsport very much in mind during its evolution, Mono was the vision of BAC design director Ian Briggs. However, he also wanted the car to feel at home as much on country lanes as it does on the race track. Mr. Briggs noted, “I wanted Mono to be high tech and totally fresh in its approach. A car for people who want to feel a connection, and be really involved in the character of the car they drive. It had to be a car people would be consistently excited by, and would experience pride in owning. In short, Mono is a totally immersive experience, from start to finish.”
Operated via steering wheel-mounted paddles, Mono uses an F3-specification, six-speed sequential Hewland gearbox with an electronic/pneumatic semi-automatic, closed-loop gear selection system that delivers paddle-shift changes in 35 milliseconds. This is coupled to a 2.3 litre, 285bhp four-cylinder Cosworth engine enabling the Mono to achieve a 0-60mph time of less than three seconds.
The closed-loop control system on Mono uses a gearbox control unit (GCU) with inputs from a Penny + Giles gear position sensor to alter its own operation in real-time. During gear changes, the closed-loop system monitors the gear position sensor to determine the angular position of the gearbox selector barrel. Information from this is then relayed to the GCU to ensure use of the throttle blip, torque reduction or pneumatic actuator where necessary, to effect consistently quick and reliable gearshifts.
As BAC co-founder and technical director Neill Briggs explains, when a gear position sensor was required for the Mono’s gearbox, specifying Penny + Giles was the obvious choice. “Used to relay gear position feedback to the GCU, sensors were vital during BAC’s development of Mono and are as vital under normal and track day driving conditions in informing the driver of the car’s current gear. We therefore needed a sensor that was dependable, reliable and met our exacting requirements for Mono, so we called Penny + Giles.”
Standard Penny + Giles SRH280P rotary position sensors use a factory-programmable, non-contact Hall-effect sensor system to provide reliable and accurate rotary position measurement in extreme motorsport and industrial environments where shock and vibration can occur. Additional key features include single or dual output channels; total sensor measurement range from 0-20° to 0-360°; low noise level (1mVrms) on output signal; crush-proof mounting flange with steel inserts; and rapid availability.
Using the popular 38mm flanged housing and with an environmental protection rating to IP68, the sensors operate from either 5Vdc regulated or 9-30Vdc unregulated power supplies and are available with analog (0.5 - 4.5Vdc and 0.1 - 4.9Vdc) or digital (PWM) output signals. The sensor is factory programmable – allowing OEMs to specify the output signal type, measurement range (0-20° to 0-360° in 1° increments) and output direction (clockwise or anticlockwise) – has a 12 bit resolution (0.025%) over the selected measuring range, and operates from -40 to +140°C when powered at 5Vdc.
Curtiss-Wright’s Industrial division is a recognized leader in the production of critical controls and assemblies for specialty vehicles, including sensors, electronic throttle controls and joysticks. For further information about Penny + Giles products and other innovative solutions available from Curtiss-Wright’s Industrial division, please visit www.cw-industrial.com or call +44 (0)1425 271444.
About Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE:CW) is a global innovative company that delivers highly engineered, critical function products and services to the commercial, industrial, defense and energy markets. Building on the heritage of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, Curtiss-Wright has a long tradition of providing reliable solutions through trusted customer relationships. The company employs approximately 10,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.curtisswright.com.
When Q8Oils launched its Field Service Technician (FST) service at the MACH exhibition in 1992 it was an instant hit with visitors and was so well received in the wider industry that, at METCUT 1994, it received the Metalworking Production ‘Technical Innovation’ award. Now, more than twenty years on, Q8Oils marks the success of FST’s unrivalled service to the UK manufacturing industry with the launch of QCare – a major upgrade of the system that monitors the condition of Q8Oils metalworking fluids and lubricants in a wide range of applications such as turning, cutting and grinding.
The new QCare service uses a network-enabled, tablet-based system with a bespoke ‘app’ that enables Q8Oils field service technicians to monitor fluids, complete their audits and deliver results while still on site. In addition, because FSTs are highly trained metalworking experts, when working with machine operators they may also be able to identify problems as their checks are completed, and help to rectify them.
A visual inspection and a variety of tests are conducted to ensure Q8Oils products are performing correctly. These include standard fluid parameters such as concentration, pH and microbiological content. They also offer advice that can help customers increase coolant life and optimise performance resulting in improved machining processes and reduced machine down time.
Customers can also logon to the QCare system using their own tablet or desktop computer, and view a full historical report at any time, and share it with colleagues.
In the past twenty years the FST system has moved from a ‘paper’ system requiring everything to be written down and multiple copies made, to an advanced and automated ‘traffic-light’ system that identifies conditions as Green (normal), Amber (caution e.g. adjust fluid concentration) or Red (immediate action required). As direct sales manager Jeremy Dineen explains: “The new QCare system is very much easier to operate, fully-automated and therefore much quicker, and will create a graphic chart to show a full history of any individual machine.” He adds that the new system is very compact, much more user-friendly on site, and allows data to be distributed instantly.
The combination of Q8Oils’ highly-trained field service technicians and modern tablet technology enables customers to streamline their metalworking operation by maintaining machine performance and saving significant costs. Regular monitoring can limit unscheduled costs by reducing man and machine down time to routine service stops, and saving unscheduled maintenance.
Leading oil and lubricant manufacturer Q8Oils is to sponsor Tom Wood, the highly successful 12 year old junior Kart racer from Castle Donington, who races for the Aim Motorsport Cadet team. The sponsorship will include funding for the season’s race entry fees and other team expenses.
His Karting successes in 2013 included 3rd in the National Cadet kart championship, which was a very close points finish - coming down to the last race. He was 3rd place overall and highest placed Young Driver in the British Cadet Kart Championship 2013 with only a couple of points between the first three drivers, Vice GP Plate Champion in the British Kart Grand Prix, Vice O Plate Champion in the IAME Cadet O Plate. He was also Top Rookie in both Championships. Another highlight of Tom’s career to date is winning the 2012 Trent Valley Kart Club Championship, which put his name on the same Trophy as his hero World Formula One Champion Lewis Hamilton. Not surprising, Tom’s own ambition is to become a Formula One world champion and he will be competing around the United Kingdom in the British Cadet kart Championship, which is acknowledged as the road to Formula One.
Tom first drove a kart in 2005 and loved it immediately. At Kartmania in 2007 the new Bambino school was being launched in 2008 and he could compete in petrol karts in the next year. A second-hand Bambino kart as a Christmas present opened another chapter in Tom’s karting life, and the Wood family made the first of many trips to Buckmore Park in Kent for the newly organised Bambino race meetings.
Tom contested the Bambino rounds through 2008 and 2009 – becoming the most successful Bambino racer at Buckmore, winning 12 out of 18 rounds in 2009 and being on the podium 17 times.
He then moved into MSA cadet racing, competing in five races as a novice before being allowed to have a full race licence. In these early meetings he won three first place novice trophies!
2010 saw him finish all three championships well up the order: with a 5th place at – Rissington, 6th at Shenington, 7th at Whilton Mill, and the highlight of the year – winning the most promising cadet trophy at the Shenington awards evening.
In 2011 it was time to move up to National Competition. Tom entered the Formula Kart Stars British championship racing for SAS motorsport. This was a big jump from the club meetings and he was now competing with much more experienced drivers up to five years older than him. The result? As always Tom pushed hard and finished as the highest placed young driver in the final championship standings. He also competed in the Shenington Club championship finishing in 3rd place overall, with many podium finishes. At the end of 2011 he signed for the top cadet team in the country – Fusion Motorsport and in 2012 competed in the Formula Kart Stars (FKS) championship. Still signed with Aim Motorsport Cadet Team, Tom is top seed for 2014, and the rest as they say is history.
As well as karting, Tom also enjoys a wide range of interests including cycling, swimming, football, hockey, running and music, but admits that his favouring next to Karting is watching Motorsport: especially F1, V8 Supercars and Motor GP.
Commenting on his Q8Oils sponsorship he says: "I am delighted to have backing from such a prestigious global company as Q8Oils. It is a fantastic opportunity and I would like to thank the company for its support. I am looking forward to what will be a very exciting season ahead together." He also repeats the promise he makes every season “I only race to win”.
Q8Oils is continuing its sponsorship of British motorsport by backing Hegarty Lawson Racing’s 2013 challenge for the British Formula 1 Sidecar Championship, as well as selected ‘wildcard’ events including the World Championship.
The announcement comes following the success Hegarty Lawson Racing (HLR) achieved in the 2012 season, which saw the pairing of Sean Hegarty (driver) and Calum Lawson (passenger) finish eighth in the British Championship, despite competing in only half the season’s races. HLR also finished fourth in its World Championship debut.
Commenting for Q8Oils, automotive sales manager Andy Harris says: “We are proud to be continuing our involvement in motorsport this year with sponsorship of Hegarty Lawson Racing. Sean and Calum are extremely talented individuals and make a great racing team; and we wish them the very best of luck for the 2013 season."
HLR’s driver Sean Hegarty says: “After a couple of years out, 2012 was a great start to my comeback and I'm surprised how quickly I am back on it. Calum is an excellent team mate, the bike was good and the results came in. It’s also great that our efforts have been noticed by Q8Oils so this season, boosted with a couple of surprises, we’ll be back with a bang!”
The first round of the 2013 British Formula 1 Sidecar Championship took place at Brands Hatch on 5th to 7th April and HLR achieved second place in both races, putting them in second place in the Championship standings. The next round is at Donington Park on the 24th to 26th May, where the sidecar classes join the World Superbikes.
Q8Oils is no newcomer to motorcycle-based racing having sponsored Airwaves Ducati Racing, Quay Garages, Ryan Farquhar and Nick Crowe Racing, so its Q8 Moto SBK Racing engine oil has a proven track record having been successfully proven in the sidecar classes for the last three years.
Q8 Moto SBK Racing is a very high quality, synthetic 10W-50 motorcycle engine oil for high-performance four-stroke engines with wet or dry clutches. Developed by Q8Oils for racing, road and off-road use, it provides superior levels of protection, while helping to maintain engine power.
For more information about Q8Oils visit www.Q8Oils.co.uk.
