DTC at Lakeside – Feb 2021

By Dick Reynolds.

Well what can I say but what a “covid” of an event!

Riddled with unexpected excitement, exciting arrivals, sad departures, thrilling tales and masses of excited anxious punters.

The day dawned rainy but dried quickly. The track looked clean and ready for action. Not happy about all the tyres to hit, but hey, don’t hit em! Gideon and Paul had it all prepped and we got under way about 9.30am. Porsche, Nissan, Mini, Lotus, BMW, Westfield, Kia, Subaru, Renault, Audi, Mazda, Toyota, you name it, it was there. Quite a deal of interest in a few cars. Some newly apparent Elise with Honda power, a Nissan fired Westfield, Jason’s Caterham R300 / 420 (more about that later) and a Yaris GR.

The Elise’s had a great day, with much spirited driving, not the least Phil Hart’s four wheel power slides out of the bottom corner – saw that from the front seat of my ride home – (more about that later).

Word got around that the Westfield had 400 horsepower under its green bonnet! Sure as hell looked like it flying up the first straight into turn one. Bit of sorting to do I suspect, but oh boy, what a weapon!

The Elise crew looked spectacular, with Gideon and Andrew in their powerful ones and the rest in various shades of motivation.

Jason and the Caterham never fail to excite, and he was absolutely on song this day. Cleaned up the lot of us with some spectacularly quick runs.

The Graham’s were out and about in the Datto 1600, and as usual tore the track up. Still waiting to see the Yaris! Maybe next time.

All the remaining Sevens were at the back of the field, as expected! Jon Young consistent as ever, Shane a bit concerned over the longevity of his rear axles – rightly so sadly as one expired at the end of the first session, along with my trailer lift home! Trailer you say? Yes, sadly the red machine expired at the start of the third run!

Not all was lost for me though! After some awkward wrangling I scored a run in the R300. Thank you Jason, made my day. That is some kind of monster, tamed only by the bravest! Not me obviously. Note: The red suited driver in the Facebook shots / video obviously a stand-in. My sincere apologies to Phil Hart, who generously offered me a seat in the Elise S. Right torn I was, but hey – the green machine! Bit hard to knock back!

I was parked between a murder of Minis. Lovely little jiggers, and the drivers appeared to have a great day of it.

It was nice to see a bevy of Germany’s finest, with lots of spirited reving of their sewing machine smooth engines. Bloody things probably got aircon as well!

Saw James’ D Type Replica off the line a few times. Still putting it through its paces in his inimitable style. Must confess I missed the Piccanto, MR2 ( saw it’s bum all morning due to it being number 37 though.) Cayman and Fossy’s XTR2. The times will no doubt tell the tale better than I. Nice to see the Audi S3 make an appearance and the Renault Megane. Have a bit of a thing about those Meganes having driven one once! As for the MX5’s, well, too damn quick for my liking!

All packed up and heading home at a respectable hour, so job done once again.

Congratulations to Jason, Gideon, Ken and Pauline Graham, Phil, Byron Maxwell and Fossy for their great times. Thank you to all the organisers for another great event, particularly Gideon, Andrew Row and Chris Johansen.