The final chequered flag has dropped on another incredible Superleague season for Menard Competition Technologies (MCT). This year’s championship has not only seen MCT’s bespoke Superleague V12 engine become shortlisted as a finalist for this year’s British Engineering Excellence Awards, but also improve on its extraordinary reliability record. Indeed, the 2009 title fight witnessed the eighteen Superleague teams clock up a combined distance of nearly 50,000kms across the year, without recording a major engine failure.
The Superleague Formula concept continues to go from strength to strength, with 18 cars on the grid at all rounds of the 2009 calendar. This year’s season has brought with it more close racing and also saw ex-Formula One star Sebastian Bourdais make his mark on the championship straight away with a victory in his first event at Estoril. This weekend, over 30,000 thousand spectators attended the season finale at Jarama to witness the Liverpool FC team claim the 2009 title honours from its closest rival Tottenham Hotspur.
Adrian Valles, Liverpool’s driver commented after the final race: “It’s fantastic to have won the championship and I’d like to thank the whole team for the great job they’ve done this season. We have been competitive at every round and yet we’ve never had any problems with reliability. To win the Superleague Formula title is a great honour for a driver because the level of competition is so high and the cars are all the same.”
Although the Superleague Formula season has now drawn to a close, another MCT 4.2 V12 engine will be busy over the winter period involved in the continued development of the BLOODHOUND land speed record project. The next few months will witness continued rocket simulation runs of the BLOODHOUND engines. The land speed record challenger utilises the 750bhp V12 to power its auxiliary systems such as the fuel pump and electrical equipment. In fact, the next stage of testing due to take place in December will mark the first time the MCT V12 engine will be run in conjunction with the main engines and will mark the next step towards the BLOODHOUND team’s 2011 land speed record goal.
Kevin Lee, MCT’s managing director, commented: “At the end of our second year working with the Superleague team, the partnership continues to go from strength to strength. Superleague’s Robin Webb and team have again done an outstanding job of combining the passions of motorsport and football, taking the package to an ever-growing audience. With drivers of the calibre of Sebastien Bourdais moving to the series, the growing stature of the championship is there for all to see. It’s an exciting time for Superleague and we feel privileged to be involved.”
Robin Webb, operations director of Superleague Formula, said: “MCT has done a fantastic job delivering a reliable, innovative and high-performance product. The engine is one of Superleague Formula's hallmarks, which has provoked many a positive comment from the established motorsport media. In particular, that evocative exhaust note is very distinctive and one that has helped turn the series into a crowd favourite."
