Racing ahead

Yamazaki Mazak has announced an extension of its motorsport sponsorship with an agreement to become the official CNC Machining Partner for the University of Birmingham's Formula Student team, UBRacing, as it pushes for success in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' annual international design and make competition, Formula Student.

The agreement will see Mazak manufacture component parts for the UBRacing team's single seater race car in Worcester. The new partnership was formalised on the 1st March 2010 at an Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) lecture held at Mazak's European Technology Centre in Worcester. At this lecture, attended by 56 interested engineers, UBRacing described the design and construction of its 2010 car.

“With several senior managers and directors at Mazak, including myself, being ex-students of the University of Birmingham's Engineering Departments, we saw this as a fantastic opportunity to put something back,” remarked John Liverton, Mazak's general manager – design engineering. “Formula Student is a great proving ground for engineering talent and who knows, in a few years time some of these students may well be working for prominent motorsport companies, maybe even for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, to whom Mazak is Official Supplier of CNC machine tools.”

The main events in UBRacing's Formula Student season take place at the famous Silverstone circuit in July and at the Hockenheimring, Germany, in August. Prior to that there is an opportunity to meet the UBRacing team and look over the team's racing car at Mazak's Grand Prix open house event ‘Putting you in Pole Position' to be held in Worcester from 23-26 March 2010.

Yamazaki Mazak
www.mazak.eu