Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
The-Line

QR Happy Laps – July 2015

By Steve Blackie. Photos by Shane Murphy.

The alarm goes off at 5:00 am (It’s cold and dark) I need to be in the car by 5:30 if I’m to get to the Queensland Raceway at Willowbank by 7:00 am, as well as getting out of Surfers before they close the street for the Gold Coast Marathon. I am going to ‘Happy Laps’.

YES it does sound like something that you would buy at Macca’s for the kids but it’s not. It’s a fun morning at a race track. I make it into the car by 5:30 am and beat the marathon road block in Southport. After stopping for fuel and to put some air in the tyres, the GPS tells me that my arrival time is 7:01am. Perfect I think.

The trip is trouble free, the traffic is light, the air is slowly getting colder as I head to Ipswich and the car temp gauge even falls a bit. On arrival, the air is very cold (I think good call for long pants and a jacket). We pay our money, $35 for a minimum 30 minutes track time (we had 40 minutes in the end), as well as a full cooked breakfast (egg, bacon, beans, mushrooms, sausages, tomato and coffee). I was right; Happy Laps does have something to do with food! This has to be considered great value for money.

The track rules are simple, street clothes are OK (no helmet required), don’t do anything stupid, speed is to be the same as on the road (which is fine as the fun bits are the corners anyway). I was the 4th car onto the track, and by the time our 40 minutes were up, I had been passed by every one of the other cars at least once. (It did make me wonder how few points some of these people must have left on their licence!).

My Esprit is fun to drive on the track, it doesn’t stop as well as modern cars, it under-steers on the way in, and over-steers on the way out, but pulls not too bad for a 26-year-old 4-cylinder turbo.

I had a fun morning HAPPY LAPPING. I would like thank Matt for making it happen. This is a fun, safe way to get on the track, and I would recommend that anyone who hasn’t done it to give it a go!

post-run
steve-blackie
the-line
the-field
the-dummy-grid
shane-murphy
sam-on-track
sam-on-track-behind
sam-murphy
adam-kingston
post-run-antics
pit-lane
martin
martin-suzanne-dick-sam
jeff
garry-pitt
dick-reynolds
big-breakfast

[Show slideshow]
Lotus Festival 2015 Noosa Mid-Year Hill Climb 2015

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

gold-rush-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022

leyburn-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Leyburn 2022

Random images

lw01mg1 Martin O'Brien - Special award 3447 Richard fits 6-1958-Berkerley-SE-492-Sport-Racer 5-Andrew-Ewan-Crossing MG_5975 2-Mike-Maggie-unloading-Caterham MG_8933 P1020846 IBT8_Lunch_at_Heritage_Winery IMG_0010 Lindsay-Close-1 img_1096 image_246 image_186 image_166 IMG_7634 IMG_8893 IMG_5206 28c 06b Mike-Moore-and-Cris-Johansen-S-Messenger 20210904_140314 Geoff-with-afterburner-on Cairns-8 David-Yule-by-SDPICS Tony-and-Sandra-Seymour The-Ringuet-Family Track-Day-Winners Kate-Mike-OSullivan Terri-and-Geoff-Musgrave-of-Lock-Load-Transport-QLD-with-Elisa-Artioli IMG_4441 Oil Slick Junior-Pits IMG-0161 Ken Carol, Karen & Vyvyan Jazz concert at the Town Hall Aaron 20160522_103934 Martin P1010424 main-6 Mar-main-86 Mar-main-69 Lindsay's-Exige-S Standing-Daryl,-Colin-and-Robyn-Seated-Craig,-John,-Greg PICT7266 main-19a P1010451 P1010430 Matt Morning_Tea_stop_Canungra P1060100 P1060081 Goodwood_Carpark2 Pau_for_the_historic_GP DSC_5357 IMG_0313 IMG_0276 Morgan Club_Lotus_Dec_08_005 P1050441 IMG_4017 IMG_3936 Club_Lotus_Dec_08_029 John_Lungren_s_Seven IMG_3251 IMG_5643 003_3 IMG_8155 IMG_8070 IMG_7959 image_043 122_2242_IMG IMG_8462 102_102 IMG_2562 The-McGarry-Team Elises IMG_0309 Historic-Gold-Battery Milling_around_after-morning_tea Jen Jon-de-helmeting Lucky-to-have-a-mate-with-a-trailer main-8 Jenny-and-old-blue main-9 unnamed-4 Dicks-Cat-2 Organisers-Margi-Ken_GW IMG_9096 IMAG6038 jaguar-e-type-1 scimitar Transport-Museum-Hillman-Minx-1960-3 main-93 Door-Prize-Lucky-Rob-and-presenter-Shane 20170709_104548

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios