BCoT’s motorsport students are celebrating a successful maiden season with their MR2 racing cars.

Across the seven race meetings of the 2014 ‘Track Attack’ season, the team’s two cars have accrued two third places and one second place between them.

Motorsport lecturer Lee Wilson said: “We’ve only finished below 10th place once – out of around 30 cars racing – and our best overall result of the season was at Silverstone, when one car finished fourth and sixth in the two races.

“And there have only been a few occasions when one of the cars hasn’t been able to race, because of engine or technical problems.”

The competition has seen the BCoT team travel to Rockingham, Castle Coombe, Snetterton, Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Cadwell Park, although the cars had some technical issues and were not able to compete in the final race at Oulton Park.

The BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Maintenance and Repair (Motorsport), which the college runs, includes units on preparing, racing and post-inspection of motorsport vehicles, both in workshops and in the pit lane.

To give students the best possible opportunity to experience this, the college has raced cars in open competitions for a number of years.

For the 2014 race season, the college purchased and rebuilt two Toyota MR2s.

“There is a specific formula for MR2 racing so, as well as being a bit more cost-effective and quicker than the 2CVs we ran last year, there was also this great opportunity to enter them in competitive races over a whole season – absolutely invaluable experience for our students,” said Lee.

In partnership with first Stoner Racing and now CFM Engineering, other local race teams, the college was put in touch with two young professional drivers who drive the cars, Nathan Wright and Michael Taylor.

The races take place at weekends and it’s usual for about 10 students to attend as pit crew.

Each race meet consists of qualifying races to decide track position and then two races.

The college cars – numbers 30 and 31 – have to be prepared and checked before and after each race, so it’s a busy day.

A number of companies associated with the college have been pleased to provide vital financial sponsorship to cover the season’s costs.

These are Jambo Ltd, Trios Skilz, Amiri Construction, Lean Education, Basingstoke Energy Services, Trinity Fire & Security Systems, Centerprise International, Training Associates, Tenet Education, Mortons and Brayborne Cleaning.

The MR2s have proved themselves over the season, and so the BCoT team already have their sights on the 2015 competition “We’ve had a good season and the cars and the students have done really well,” said Lee. “We’re hoping to raise even more sponsorship and get some even better results next season!”

For more information, or to find out how to sponsor the team in 2015, please visit bcot.ac.uk/mr2-racing-team.