Joseph Clough, who grew up racing go-karts at Lake Gillear and still races in the country series, was selected to be part of Monash University’s motorsport project in which a student-run team designs, builds, tests and races Formula SAE cars.

The former Emmanuel College student, who is half way through his double degree in Engineering and Science, has worked on the suspension and vehicle dynamics of the cars which will be entered in the world’s largest engineering design competition.

Mr Clough said his job was to ensure the car handled well and was enjoyable to drive. “Dealing with bumps, whole bunch of math and computer simulations and software work which is all really relevant for learning industry skills,” he said. “The things you learn on this team are above and beyond anything you learn at university.”

The Warrnambool Kart Club member’s experience behind the wheel means that he also gets to drive the cars which were recently brought to Lake Gillear for testing. “At competition, I drive the cars in two of the four dynamic competitions,” he said.

Mr Clough will travel to Europe with the team in June for two months where they will race their combustion and electric cars at famous Formula 1 racetracks at Silverstone in England, Red Bull Ring in Austria and Hockenheim in Germany.

“When you’re 11 years old and you’re watching the formula ones and you think I’d love to race there one day but you never really think it’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m very privileged to have that chance.”

Clough said racing was held on a small narrow track reaching speeds of up to 100km/h but the car’s average speed was 70km/h. He said he was keen to pursue a career with a motorsport team.

“I love motorsport and I love the high pressure situations and the work that gets done with it so I’d be very interested in moving into that career path,” he said.

“It’s given me some really valuable connections with people who have worked in Formula 1 and V8 supercars.”

Monash Motorsport business leader Ruth Li said the student-run team was selected from a range of faculties.

“Last year was the first year we competed with an electric car as well as a combustion car,” she said. “We achieved overall first in both those car categories in the Australasian competition.”

The Australasian competition is held each year and attracts university entries from all over the world, and every second year a team is sent to Europe to compete

She said the Lake Gillear track was used to help prepare drivers who would compete on unfamiliar tracks in Europe. “We did a lot of testing in Warrnambool to get out drivers in that zone.”

The Monash Motorsport program, which has been running since 2000, is already researching and designing a driverless car to enter in next year’s competition.