Xtrac’s long-serving principal design engineer, Andrew McDougall, has received the 2024 Louis Schwitzer Award for his gearbox electric servo actuator, which has been adopted as part of Xtrac’s single source transmission supply for the NTT Indycar Series, including the famous Indianapolis 500 race held each year on the Sunday before Memorial Day.
McDougall received a $10,000 prize from the Indiana Section of SAE International (formerly Society of Automotive Engineers) and award sponsors Cummins and Valvoline Global during a Louis Schwitzer Award Banquet at the Dallara Factory in Speedway, Indiana, on 18 May 2024.
“This award is a testament to the exceptional work of our engineering team, a group of dedicated professionals who have shared this journey with me,” McDougall gratefully acknowledged. He was presented with a plaque, which will be added to a trophy at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. “I was particularly proud to accept the award on behalf of our senior R&D systems engineer Geoff Cholmeley, design engineer Geri Nicosia, and senior software engineer Rose Panikulam, whose collaborative contributions were instrumental in developing the electric servo actuator and taking the concept into production.“
Based at Xtrac’s Indianapolis facility, McDougall has been a critical team member at Xtrac for over 20 years. A seasoned professional in the motorsport industry, he graduated with a first-class mechanical engineering degree from Warwick University. McDougall’s expertise has been instrumental in designing and managing complete transmission systems and sub-assemblies. Along with the electric servo actuator (known as the ESA), another of his remarkable innovations is Xtrac’s patented Instantaneous Gearchange System (IGS). This ingenious, purely mechanical design enables seamless gearchange shifting in zero time as it can momentarily hold two gears simultaneously without the gearbox exploding.
“This level of expertise is mirrored in the team, with each member bringing their unique knowledge to the project,” said a delighted chief executive, Adrian Moore. “Their ingenuity deserves this external recognition and endorsement of their skills. I’d also like to pay tribute to all of the hard-working production team at Xtrac who manufacture all of the individual parts of the ESA in the UK before the final assembly, which is carried out in the USA; without the quality of their work on this programme it simply would not have been possible to supply the whole Indycar grid with this technology.”
Cholmeley has been with Xtrac since 2012, a highly experienced engineer with specialist knowledge in electromechanical systems. Nicosia joined in 2022 following his industrial placement as an undergraduate engineer. Panikulam joined the company in Dec 2023, bringing a high level of software experience and was instrumental in developing the P1399 ESA to make it compliant with industry standards.
Xtrac’s P1399 Electric Servo Actuator is a revolutionary gearchange system for sequential shift transmissions. The ESA offers many advantages, including ultra-fast shifts, reduced weight, streamlined components, and enhanced efficiency. The ESA’s direct actuation technology improves accuracy and repeatability and significantly reduces the electrical demand on the race car, making it a game-changer in the motorsport industry.
“This award is a prestigious automotive engineering accolade celebrating and recognising groundbreaking innovations that push the boundaries of advanced automotive technology,” commented Steve Holman, who chairs the Louis Schwitzer Award Committee. “Named after Louis Schwitzer, an accomplished engineer and race car driver, this award has a rich history of honouring individuals and teams behind the innovative concepts introduced to the motorsport industry. This year’s award recognises McDougall’s exceptional work and team leadership and underscores the significant role of Xtrac in advancing the motorsport industry.”
During Xtrac’s continuous growth over the past 40 years, it has distinguished itself with countless awards. Most recently, the UK and USA-based automotive and motorsport transmission specialist was recognised for its technological innovation with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2020, and in 2018 and again in 2021, it received the Princess Royal Training Award for its excellent apprenticeship programme.
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