Words by Steve Lennox. Photos by Matthew Wylie.
This is the mid-winter DTC event, as such I leave before the sun comes up and it is absolutely icy at Lakeside until we start at 9:00 am (thank goodness for the niceties of a roof and heater). However, what a perfect day for a Lotus track event, the cool dense air helping our small-bore motors punch the cars around the tight track.
Quite a few of the usual participants were missing due to other Lotus competitive events such as the Noosa Hillclimb and the ICC Porsche Sprint at Morgan Park, yet we still managed 37 entrants. Confirming what a strong and active club we have.
As always this is a very well-run event with all the volunteers knowing what to do and getting on with it, resulting in us starting right on time. Special mentions to Ken and Pauline Graham for their special trip to deliver the gazebo and staging gear, as well as Giles Cooper, Kent Endres, Michael Blesses and Ayu for running the timing all day.
We got nine runs for the day giving everyone a good shot at mastering what proved to be a somewhat slippery track. It seems that there was a skidpan day on the Saturday prior and the sprinklers were left on, causing a lot of standing water at the roundabout.
We really got full value of the “DT” part of the DTC as Driver Training was what the day was all about. It was interesting how much slower everyone was on the day and how much grip we could get in the wet. The real challenge was, as the tyres dried out on the track the grip was variable, so we had quite a few slides spins and cross ups on corners 5 and 6, as can be seen in the photos. I personally came to grips with the rush of torque from the turbo motor making it interesting to keep those rear wheels behind the fronts. Luckily for me no spins but some close calls in keeping the Europa heading in the right direction.
Matthew Wylie came out to spectate and got some great photos, so a big thanks to him catching the action.
