Christchurch Boys old boy, Jacob Ewing, is leading a team of University of Canterbury (UC) students rated among the best in the world in Formula Student motorsport.

The team has just signed a generous sponsorship deal with world-renowned Triumph Motorcycles Limited.

Jacob, who is team principal and studying for a Bachelor of Commerce degree at UC, is excited about developing this new relationship with the team.

“We compete against European teams that are sponsored by big names like Red Bull, AMG Mercedes, and Porsche. This deal ensures we can go toe-to-toe with them.” Jacob says.

“Triumph is a globally respected engineering powerhouse, showing the way for even the big Japanese manufacturers like Honda that were dominating just a few years ago. Their engines are small and light, but make huge torque, which is exactly what you want in a motorcycle or in a very light race car like ours.”

A world ranking system is maintained by the Formula Student organising group in Germany, which takes into account the performance of teams at all Formula Student motorsport events around the world. This year the UC Motorsport team has been ranked third in the combustion engine class, out of 556 teams.

The exceptional performance of the team attracted the interest of Triumph Motorcycles Ltd in the United Kingdom, which has recently finalised a generous sponsorship deal with the UC student motorsport team.

Triumph will supply the team with ultra-high-tech three-cylinder engines and parts that are similar to those it will supply for the Moto2 grand prix motorcycles from the 2019 season onwards.

Similar to other forms of motorsport Formula Student is unique in that only university students can compete and they must completely design and build their own cars.

In multiple events held around the world each year, more than 600 of the best university teams compete both on the race track and in a range of off-track events which test the depth of the students’ knowledge in engineering, business and management.