Towards the end of last year, Excelerate Technology teamed up with one of the power houses of British motorsport, Triple Eight Race Engineering. And already this year, the formidable alliance is reaping the rewards of their labour long before an engine has been revved in anger for this year’s British Touring Championship.

During the team's first private test in Spain last month, information was being transmitted from trackside back to the team’s Oxfordshire-based headquarters at speeds that even Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Tom Chilton would struggle to live with, and all via a secure, broadband satellite link.

With the new Vauxhall Vectra race car booked in for a week of testing at the Almeria track in southern Spain, the team benefited from Excelerate’s satellite communication solutions without a single glitch.

Cardiff-based Excelerate is supplying Transportable Satellite Broadband VPN (TSBV) solutions on the team’s race trucks at all participating venues, events and tracks throughout the UK and abroad in a bid to keep the team ahead of the competition both on the track and trackside.

For the first time, engineers at the track were able to communicate live with the team's headquarters in Oxfordshire, exchanging live data as well as consulting, accessing and modifying drawings while the car was going through its test programme.

Franck Marie, Commercial and Marketing Director for Triple Eight said: “We are thrilled with the way this first live test of the Excelerate solutions went. As soon as the trucks were parked up at the Spanish track, we had live communication set up with the factory back in Greatworth - Oxfordshire.

“This proved very valuable for our engineers and designers who could liaise with our HQ, access drawings remotely to discuss parts and analyse data in a secure way, without having to wait to get back to base in the UK to do so.

“In a heavily time-constrained situation such as a test abroad, we could immediately see the benefits of this technology to us”.

David Savage, Chairman and CEO for Excelerate added: “I am delighted that we have teamed up with one of the major forces in British motorsport, and, if the Triple Eight Race Engineering Team can have success on the track and shade the opposition by just a matter of seconds, I will be even happier to think that we have had a hand in it.

“It is vital that the team have all the information at hand trackside while keeping the UK-based operation informed at all times, and that needs to be done via a secure route – our technology allows that to happen.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering, which manages The VX Racing team on behalf of Vauxhall, has won 13 of the 18 available drivers’, manufacturers’ and Teams' titles in the past six years.