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

Noosa Hillclimb July 2015

Pat-Dick-Jon-a-winning-line-up

Fourteen torturous corners

By Dick Reynolds

The word went out about 2 months ago. ‘The Hill’ awaits in July – 25th and 26th to be exact. Fourteen torturous corners winding their way up Gyandier Drive just out of Tewantin on the Sunshine Coast.

This place is legendary for providing exciting drives and eating cars. We never seem to get many takers for the event from Lotus – ‘pussies’ I suspect. Well, not Jon Young and yours truly – because we love it, and so does Jason McGarry when he’s available. This year we were joined by Pat Richards (Lotus Elise Type R) from Mackay and a couple of his mates, Peter Quinn (Austin Healey Sprite) and Rob Manning (Mini). I should also mention the rowdy turbo rabble from the Sunshine Coast Motorsport Club were there in abundance.

Put up the tents, checked the car over, did all the paperwork, got ‘scruted’, listened to the drivers’ briefing – no mention of the latest CPR or fire emergency practices – walked back to the cars and waited for our call.

Jon was Number 12 and I was 17. So we both wheeled down to the start together to line up. Get a green light, nudge nudge, wink wink from the starter and it’s clutch out, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd before the first right hander – about 90km/h – then left at 2, right at 3, left at 4 and mass panic for 5. Six is flat so about 120 and a bit, then the worst corner – 7. Tightens, off camber exit, and presents concrete blocks, a tree and a few all too tiny tyres just out of the exit. Left and right full throttle through 8 and 9 and on to the hairpin 10 to thrill the crowd with a bit of opposite lock or whatever takes your fancy.

11, 12 and 13 are almost full throttle esses, encased, enfolded or threatened by umpteen concrete blocks, followed by 14, which significantly has the finish line half way ‘round it. Significantly ‘cos that’s where you’ll come off second best – usually! Problem is if you come in too fast, you kiss the barriers and if you realise you are too fast and back off, you kiss the barriers. I’m talking crash, not pash type kissing! Think we had 3 or four hit the wall on Sunday.

Having driven all that; you get the biggest thrill in Queensland motorsport – in my opinion, of course. Back off, ‘U-turn’ in behind the other competitors waiting up the top and breathe that sigh of relief, feel the tingly fingers and cross yourself – safe at the top once again!

We did 8 runs for the weekend, with Jon sorting the car on Saturday, and punting it Sunday for a 71.56 – top 100 placing at number 99. I had the car sorted, so got straight into it, battling Antoinette Redhead for most of the weekend in her lovely MGB, and came out 28th with a 64.30.

The others mentioned earlier: Elise 52nd, with 67.16, Austin Healey 125th with 77.35 and the Mini 106th with a 72.87.

Just for the record, Michael von Rappard (I hope his mum knows he’s out) cleaned up with a 52.44 in the Dallara F392. Michael Heerings of DTC fame 13th with a 61.66, and Glen Hooper with the AWD Riot (seen lurking at the DTC) 7th with a 59.96.

All told, a great weekend of motorsport, with Jon taking 3rd place in Sports Cars 0 to 1600cc, Pat taking 3rd place in Sports Cars 1601 to 2000cc and myself bagging 1st in the same class.

Packed the cars, collected our trophies, filled up with fuel and convoyed back to Brisbane.

Magic!

Dicks-Race-Transport
Jon-and-Dick
Pat-Dick-Jon-winning-line-up
Pat-Richards
The-Dallara

[Show slideshow]
Mt Glorious Run – July 2015 Samford to Birches

Related Posts

marburg-banner

EMRs, Gallery 2022, Homepage, News

Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022

chapman-classics-banner

Articles, Gallery 2021, Homepage, News, Technical

Chapman Era Classics

aussie-elises-banner

Articles, Homepage, News

Aussie Elises

Random images

MG_9611 concours-3 6-Road-trip-to-Mt-Mee Shane-Murphy-announcing-winners Our-Marquee 13-Scottys-Garage-Museum 5-Andrew-Ewan-Crossing MG_6561 MG_6009 sunbeam-alpine concours-15 MG_8795 IMG_5328 Perusing_the_menus_Milawa Penny_farthing_man_at_Beechworth_Festival CRW_6609_RJ IMG_8790 121_2179_IMG 121_2133_IMG 73-01-Weldborough-RM Reminder-to-Nav Lotus-Exige unnamed-3 Sam Murphy Mal Kelson 1997 Lotus Elise - 2 Jack Toohey 1989 Mazda RX7 - 1 gw-Rob and John Garry-James IMG_0447 img_1098_2 MG-8182 IMGP0361 Joie de Vivre owner & singer, Deeny dtc-16 20160522_101521 Ormiston-6 _MG_4606 as Smart Object-1 _MG_4504 as Smart Object-1 Mitch IMG_7999 IMG_7962 DSC03835 IMG_8590 image_071 IMG_8485 Jan-main-19 Dick's-Seven IMG_6871 image_220 John-putting-air-into-his-tyres IMG_0230 P1010410 IMG_0316 Winner_2010_Qld_HC_Champship P1010076 IMG_0421 IMG_0324 IMG_7888a IMG_0971 26d IMG_5306 IMG_3331 Aug_F02_2399a 9_Getting_ready lot_014 DSC_1539 IMG_8026 PICT7278 P1060552 145_145 006_6 005_5 003_3 P8310141 IMG_6338 IMG20200204154134 received_2795716967351548 IMG_4355 Some_of_the_Cars_2 unnamed 20210228_132420 IMG_3893 tony-galletly's-eleven The rain sets in IMG_4354 Jon-Young New-member-Paul-took-the-trophy-for-his-Elise-220 _MG_1793_gw Over-3000cc-Sports-cars.-Geoff-Noble-Matt-Plowman-and-Maree-filling-in-for-Tony-Seymour the-mighty-falcon Jones-Winery-2 Zaid Highly tuned Mini 20140304_192936 Visualising Japanese-Maple IMG_9094 The wife tricked-up-torana Steve and Paul

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