Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Portal
    • Join the Club
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Business Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Galleries
  • Magazine
    • Magazine 2022
    • Magazine 2021
    • Magazine 2020
  • Motorsport
  • Archives
a-series-banner

A Series – Morgan Park Sprints

By Greg Bray. Photos By Trapnell Creations.

It is great to be back participating at Morgan Park Sprints after a two year break for me due to ill health.

Greg Bray in his 1969 Lotus 61 Formula Ford. Photo by Trapnell Creations.
Pleased to say I have just completed the second round of A Series Sprints at Warwick in my single seater 1969 Lotus 61 Formula Ford. Because I’m in a single seater I now have to participate in the A Series. As Warwick District Car Club decided to put all single seaters in A Series together. If you wantcompetition with similar cars, that’s where you have to be now. I regret therefore not seeing our B Series members and being able to watch the Elise / Exige guys dicing out on the track, as I had been able to do for many years whilst Sprinting in my green Lotus Europa.

Im the only Lotus Formula Ford at Warwick of course, and in the oldest FF. (surprisingly not the oldest driver) I’m up against five other drivers all in different makes of FF’s.

Great bunch of friends now, all helping each other out. Usually a couple of Formula 3 cars join our Sprint group to make up our group out on track together.

The only other cars there worth mentioning in my opinion in series A are some grunty Cobra Replica’s, a GT40 Replica, and a very nice Radical look alike with Suzuki Hayabusa power unit, rocker arm suspension 1300cc 180bhp and very fast.

Ken Gray with the clubbies.

There was a Lotus 18 replica, but the oldest part of it was the Lotus badge.

Ken Gray, a local welder/ fabricator and friend of mine runs his V2 motorcycle engined single seater in A Series. He fabricated and made everything himself. Looks like a mini Lotus 22 to me. He is put in a group with Clubmans and gives them a ‘run for their money’.

I felt a lot more comfortable driving in this second round this past weekend, as I was a bit rusty in Feb’s Sprints. This was reflected in my times, as April’s results we FF’s were all very close.

I will have to miss the 3rd round at Warwick as it coincides with the Lotus Grand Tour (not to be missed) but back for the 4th round in Aug’.

For those who might be interested how I found my Lotus Formula Ford. I bought it in pieces all boxed up whilst on holiday in Wales UK. Staying with our friends there who are absolute Lotus ‘nut cases’. Friend Andy told me he knew of a good project for me kept just up the Valley. The car was shipped over from America where it had been raced from new. Finally involved in a big accident at Road America track and totally dismantled. Placed in boxes and left like that for years. Sold to a Welsh man on line who had it delivered to Wales. He never got on with the rebuild either. I ended up buying it in it’s boxes just because it was a Lotus, I knew nothing about F.F’s. I finally got the boxes over here in 2008.

I loved a project I must admit. I totally restored everything mechanical, gave the chassis to Ken Gray for repair, he did an excellent job for me. I did all the fibreglass repairs, made moulds for the front bodywork, then gave it to the painter.

The car had been black, not too nice we thought, so changed it to Red and White (Gold Leaf colours) I was very pleased with the finished car.

My first race was at Morgan Park in 2010. Where for some years I did 4 Sprint meetings a year and 3 Historic Car Races a year all at Warwick. A few Hill Climbs at Noosa and the odd race at Lakeside.

In the early days, I found because it had raced in America the car was massively over geared, because America only do rolling starts. So l had to lower all the gear ratio’s to be competitive. Also, even though l had a custom built Aluminium radiator, the more laps l did the hotter it got, which would have been OK for a UK car. In America they got over that problem by cutting off the front nose of the body back by 8″ to increase air flow. I didn’t want to do that so I fitted two Naca ducts in the front to increase air flow to the radiator, which totally fixed the problem.

Recollections of Les Mellor HSCCQ Khanacross – April 2022

Related Posts

dtc-banner

DTC, Events, Homepage

Lakeside DTC Timed Laps

emr-banner

EMRs, Gallery 2022, Homepage

Mt Glorious EMR – April 2022

gear-banner

Articles, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

LCQ was invited

Random images

img_1067
IMG_0230
IMG_0330
IMG_0365
Elan S1 Interior
1425975581_0e7b1c822f_m_1
Ploughman's Lunch
MG_7035
Tom_heads_up_the_first_climb
IMG_0014
IMG_0033
David_Reid_and_Jonathon_Williamson
IMG_3870a
Mar-main-20
main-0
main-18
122_2259_IMG
image_018
IMG_7377
P9190094c1
IMG_8064
IMG_8136
P1020731
2009_Maccleans_Bridge_008
163_163
P1060252
P1060298
4_IMG_9521
08a
30a
IMG_5025
IMG_3289
lot_014
image_271
IMG_6820
IMG_6850
IMG_6959
IMG_4856
IMG_8408
IMG_7660
IMG_6504
Lotus_pack
CRW_6399_RJ
Daryls-new-paint-job
MG_8830
MG_8904
6.Martin-Garry-Jason
4-Setting-up-camp-sunset
IMGP3182
Lotus-line
Darryl Ringuet - Special award 3445
4. ...and more rain
Rob
George dismounting
Last to Leave
IMGP0219
MG-8174
Mark A and Martin
Phil
gw_Scrutineering
George Row 2007 Lotus Elise - 1
Andrew and Co
Green Machine
20180916_072314
John-Mactaggarts-lovely-Evora-by-SDPICS
5
Keeping-Dry
221871599_231105778874252_2720472712768024505_n
DSC_0264
20220220_093818
New-DTC-coordinator-Gideon-Street
The-Big-Guitar-on-route
Goody-Bag
3-Drew-Dundas
27-jm35 007
Lotus-Garage
German-Bakehouse
a cold start
Catching up
Evan in Pit Lane
Mt Mee
smashed capri-2
DSC_4139
Martin-on-Garrys-tail_gw
_MG_9666 as Smart Object-1
Paintwork-on-restoration
_MG_9711 as Smart Object-1
Topless-Cats-1
Daryl-Colin-Ken-Glen_GW
_MG_9681 as Smart Object-1
IMGP8296
IMGP8379
Cool Profile
IMAG6032
M100-1
Cool Pit Ladies
IMG_9110
main-43
Lindsay
Sam on the run

Recent Articles

  • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
  • Mt Glorious EMR – April 2022
  • LCQ was invited
  • GT Auto Garage LTD
  • HSCCQ Khanacross – April 2022
  • A Series – Morgan Park Sprints
  • Recollections of Les Mellor
  • Super Sprints B Series 2022

Latest Gallery Images

rack3 rack4 rack2 rack1 Evaporator-box IMG_3229

Search articles by category

Archived articles

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