MWheels becomes sponsor of BTRC contenders Team Oliver Racing
MWheels has become a key sponsor of British Truck Racing Championship (BTRC) outfit Team Oliver Racing, supplying wheels for its racing trucks and transporter vehicles.
The agreement, will see the Xlite and Xbrite brands feature prominently on the trucks. Team Oliver Racing is running two trucks this season, with British and European Truck Racing Champion Stuart Oliver driving a bonneted Volvo VNL alongside a Scania P1100, driven by Martin Gibson.
The venture marks MWheels’ reintroduction into truck racing and is part of the overall strategy to monitor the Xlite and Xbrite forged aluminium wheels in extreme motorsport conditions.
Team Oliver Racing and MWheels, then Motor Wheel Service Distribution, worked together in 2012, when a joint campaign ensured the FIA agreed to change technical regulations to allow all truck racing teams to run with forged aluminium wheels on the outside of the rear axle.
“Up until the law change trucks had raced with steel wheels on the outside, a move instigated a number of years before when cast alloys where used on the exterior, but these shattered or cracked when involved in a collision as they did not possess the strength to withstand an impact,” explains Oliver.
“Steel had similar issues, but due to the manufacturing process of Xlite and Xbrite forged aluminium wheels they absorb the impact as compared to breaking, this ultimately allows vehicles to continue racing as well as decreasing potentially hazardous track debris.”
Xlite and Xbrite, which are five times stronger and 40% lighter than the standard steel equivalent, are spin forged from a single aluminium billet, a manufacturing process using a CNC machine to produce a higher degree of production accuracy and a truer running wheel.
Xlite is available in machined and polished finishes, while Xbrite+ goes through several automated treatment stages which permeate the metal deeper to deliver a wheel with the highest levels of corrosion resistance and shine. Wheels are available in 17.5, 19.5 and 22.5 inch sizes.
The advantages of operating with forged aluminium wheels including extra payloads, reduced diesel usage, decreased CO² emissions and less wear on surrounding parts, including expensive components such as tyres and brakes.
Matthew Mardle, chief operating officer at MWheels, adds: “The BTRC is a fast, high impact sport where weight-saving is imperative and the ability to continue a race following a collision is crucial, this is why Xlite forged aluminium wheels are the perfect product for Team Oliver Racing.
“At the end of each meeting we look at the wheels to see what we can learn, this technical information is then given to Wheels India so we can continually assess how to further improve our products to deliver the best possible day-to-day operational benefits for fleet operators.”