NETWORK: MTEC Motorsport

MTEC Motorsport is an Australian-based international motorsport team, specialising in driver development, as well as the transition from karts to cars.

The result of a merger between Minda Motorsport and ETEC Motorsport in 2016, MTEC Motorsport is a successful team built on race-winning experience in single-seater, touring and sports car racing categories across the world.

The team is run by Supercars Team Manager Bruin Beasley, who operated Minda Motorsport before taking on a management role with ETEC Motorsport.

“Originally we were Minda Motorsport, which was involved with the CAMS Rising Stars programme, as well as Super2, GT, Formula Ford, before being wound down around 2014,” Beasley explained.

“I retired before I started managing a team in New Zealand called ETEC Motorsport.

“I ended up buying it and re-branding the team as MTEC Motorsport.”

The team solely competes in the New Zealand-based Formula Regional Oceania Championship with the support of a European-based squad, running five Tatuus FT-60 chassis cars in the open-wheel category.

It last competed in the series in 2020, running current World Endurance Championship driver Oliver Rasmussen, current FIA Formula 3 Championship driver Caio Collet, Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia race winner Jackson Walls, as well as Petr Ptacek, and Lucas Petersson.

It was a successful campaign for MTEC Motorsport, with Collet and Walls picking up race victories at Teretonga Park and Pukekohe Park Raceway respectively.

While the COVID-19 pandemic and Gen3 Supercars programme hindered attempts to race in New Zealand since then, Beasley is planning a return campaign in 2024.

“Our plan is to run five cars over the season In conjunction with a European team we’ve got a relationship with,” he added.

“We’ll work with them in that project and hopefully put a campaign together to win a championship.

MTEC Motorsport places great emphasis on fostering young talent and nurturing the next generation of motorsport professionals, possessing two Tatuus FT-40 and a single Tatuus FT-50 that the team utilises for testing purposes, in addition to the five cars it runs in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship.

“We’ve got opportunities for kids to do some testing and align themselves with ourselves to do stuff here and enter the Formula Regional Oceania Championship,” Beasley said.

“It is a great category to be involved with, it’s probably the closest thing to being in Europe without being in Europe.

“In the past, we’ve had [Lando] Norris, [Lance] Strolls, [Nikita] Mazepins, [Callum] Ilotts, [Marcus] Armstrongs, [Liam] Lawsons all those guys will come and be part of the series.

“Drivers from the junior categories of Red Bull, Ferrari, Renault as a rule of thumb, come over and do race in the series.

“It’s just cool, it’s really competitive, tough, high-level, open-wheel racing, so it’s nice to be able to be close and be part of that.

“We’re happy to try and get local drivers opportunities to go over there to Europe.”

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