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
  • Motorsport
    • DTC Live Results – June 2022
  • Archives
Shane-at-the-Exchange

ICC Rounds 5 & 6 Night and Observation Runs

Old School Navigation Tool

Night Observation Run – Round 5 ICC

By Shane Murphy.

At MG Car Club’s Rocklea rooms we did what we always do – we mulled around the start line with a nervous air, discussed tactics, consumed an array of hamburgers, instant coffee and soft drinks, and felt like the events to come meant we were about to plunge into a cold, black abyss.

Lotus Club Queensland approached Round 5 of the challenge with a clear mandate: outrun and outscore the Porsche Club. We were semi-confident of a reasonable result, given team leader Tony Galletly’s previous experience and intimate knowledge of how these mysterious events were run.

The briefing started; MGCC event marshal, Malcolm Spiden, outlined the rules. Dead set he was “Speaking in Tongues”, my navigator and I laughed… what had we gotten ourselves into? Oh well, we decided to just go for it and work it out along the way.

LCQ fielded four teams, father and daughter combo Elspeth & Tony Galletly, Ken Philp & Daryl Wilson, Jon Young & Dick Reynolds and myself with eldest son Sam. A nice line up and a chance for Tony and me to spend time with our offspring.

Some would say each time had a natural advantage or handicap; I will leave those descriptions to the readers, however in no fixed order, the phrases; too fast, too old, too blind, too bald, dark horses and outright contender were bandied about!

Off we went; Jon was clearly smokin’, Dick was a little green around the gills, Tony and Elspeth were calm and under control (and fast), Daryl and Ken were lost and Sam and I just laughed the whole night long as we diced with a Porsche Cayenne, who incidentally, we beat even though he finished two minutes ahead of us.

Overall Lotus Club Queensland increased our lead on the Porsche club by 5 points and after 5 events Lotus Club Queensland heads the scoreboard.

Lotus Club Qld 76
Porsche Club Qld 71
Alfa Romeo Owners Club Qld 55
MG Car Club Qld 53
BMW Car Club Qld 52
Holden Sporting Car Club Qld 36
Z Car Club 17
Sprite Club Qld 0
WRX Club 0
MX5 Car Club 0
MG Car Club Gold Coast 0

The course wound around the southern side of Brisbane (very foreign territory for me), the instructions were broken into seven sections, compounded by being held at night;

  • Traditional
  • Tulip
  • Mud Map
  • UBD Square
  • Map Trace
  • Intersection
  • Street Name

The primary objective was of course to decipher the instructions, run the course in the shortest distance and answer all of the questions. Much easier said than done.

There were 14 starters: 4 Lotus Club, 1 MGCC, 3 Alfa Romeo CC, 3 Porsche Club, 1 MR2 Club and 2 BMW. The event was won by a host club driver; however spectacularly Lotus Club members finished 2nd, 4th 7th, and 12th. Navigator fatigue played a major role in the outcome, with a hint of nausea wafting over the finish line.

Like all good management protocols, the review and assessment phase of a project is critical, key lessons leant:

  • Husband and wife teams would not be helpful
  • Always start with a full tank of petrol
  • Don’t enlist a navigator who is short sighted and needs glasses
  • Don’t enlist a navigator who has a nervy dispensation
  • Don’t enlist a navigator who suffers from motion sickness

 

Interclub Challenge Round Six – Observation Run (Burpengary East to Kilcoy)

By Liam Philp. Photos Shane Murphy.

ICC Round Six was held by The Northern Districts Sporting Car Club and the Lotus Club contingent were once again in a dominant position. With two hands on the Club outright trophy and bottles corked for a possible 1,2,3,4,5 finish in the Individual outright championship, competitors looked set for a day of intense map scrutinising and Broiler spotting.

For those unfamiliar with the format of an observation run, teams are given a non-specific road book, a map and a set of questions which must be answered. Points are gained for correct answers, but are also gained and lost depending on the distance traveled between each checkpoint. The run was not timed, so teams were able to go at any pace they wished. No navigation aids were permitted bar the map supplied, very old school navigation with no Google Maps and Street Directories at the contestant’s disposal.

The day began with run in the cold up to the starting rendezvous at Burpengary for a much needed coffee to go along with route and road book analysis. Some teams spent up to an hour debating road choices and highlighting maps, whilst others tried to guess what the clues could possibly mean. After a quick briefing, we scurried off towards the first checkpoint. Martin and myself led the Lotus contingent out of the blocks in his Elise, followed by Phil and Gail in their Lotus 911 GT3 with Shane and Jennifer in the Seven behind.

In the fiercely competitive pre-86 road registered class; all three aspirants (Shane in the Green Machine, Peter Stringfellow in his Stanza (the Sprite off the road with engine troubles) and Kent Krieseker in his 911 Porsche all fronted hunting for those championship points.

The route, which featured some of the regions finest views, was more than tempting to go for a punt on. But the crews had to restrain themselves to make sure they did not miss any clues to the questions which, unfortunately, we did. We were taken from Burpengary, through the Beerburrum and Glass House Mountains to Kilcoy, where the tour finished in the beer garden of the Kilcoy Exchange Hotel, with a refreshing ale and lively chatter about our various shortcomings as navigators.

Curiously even though we all navigated the same route, very few of us crossed paths all day

The event was a huge success for the club. Phil and Gail Hart placed second, the highest placing lotus club members, Martin O’Brien and I made a four-way tie for third and Shane and Jennifer Murphy placed ninth. In the Individual Outright Championship, Phil Hart Leads Martin O’Brien by only four points, with myself in third, Shane Murphy in fourth and Dick Reynolds in fifth. Our combined efforts have increased our lead to eight points in the Club Championship, further solidifying our position with three rounds to go. The next round should be hotly contested.

Old School Navigation Tool
Liam and Martin
What the_
Not Sure About That
Morning Run
Afternoon Run
Planning the Course
Phil and Gail
Briefing
Drivers Briefing
Navigators Briefing
Instructions 1 of 8
Instructions 3 of 8
Martin and Shane
Phil and martin
Shane - at the Exchange
The End

[Show slideshow]
Round 4 – Qld Super Sprint B Series ICC Round 6 Lakeside DTC 2016

Related Posts

seymour-banner

Articles, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Vale Tony Seymour

des-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

QLD Supersprint Round 2 B Series

bathurst-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

The newbie trail to Mt Panorama

Random images

IMG_0329
IMG_0482
DSC_5269
DSC_5342
1425972625_9f2001c84e_m_1
Ploughman's Lunch
Ploughman's Lunch
P1060079
Rus_and_Leigh_Carter
IMG_0304_1
2006_08_27_Gympie_Skid_Pan0092
John-going-off-road-driving
Mar-main-9
main-14
GIC3a
IMG_8473
image_016
IMG_7351
IMG_5202
IMG_7978
IMG_8040
IMG_8052
IMG_6348
P5250021
P1090172
P8310146
P1050428
P1050570
Pieter_also_holding_Graham_s_trophy_Pato_Geoff_Noble_Greg_Bray
CRW_7673_RJ
P1060227
P1060248
Geoff_on_target_to_be_No_1
IMG_2540
IMG_7927
12_IMG_9569
18_Creatures_of_Rainforest_Teahouse
08a
33c
IMG_3705
lot_005
lot_027
lot_029
image_271
IMG_4444
IMG_8415
IMG_8426
IMG_8729
IMG_8781
IMG_8799
117_1795_IMG
IMG_8982
MGP2191
IMG_4376
MG_5995
Rob-and-Clive
IMG_4893
Historic-dummy-grid
7-Road-trip-to-Mt-Mee
Lunch-at-Golding-winery
_MG_4587 as Smart Object-1
20160522_103334
7. Aircraft of all ages
dtc-20
Always a Heckler
Dummy Grid
Passenger Rides for Beyond Blue
December-EMR
Jon Young 1988 Caterham Super 7 - 2
Liam Philp DTC
20180916_071500
IMG_2469
07252021-copy3
IMG_2232-2
IMAG5935
Jen-relaxing-in-the-comfortable-habitat
170521 Khanacross - Short Track
_MG_1812_gw
The Bleachers
John and Debbie's Evora 4
9-Fish-&-chips-by-the-seaside
20170709_104245
vyv-photo-9
Jon, Dick and Vyvyan
Ouch
IMG_6182
IMAG5960
Inside the brewery_gw
_MG_9681 as Smart Object-1
Japanese-Maple
Batwing
Shane with no hub caps
Clives in the bay
Competition line up
Muddy Pits
Tony-Galletlys-11-3
Jon being Swamped
Vyvs-Plus2
main-47
Aston-Martin-2

Recent Articles

  • Vale Tony Seymour
  • A tale of technology too far
  • QLD Supersprint Round 2 B Series
  • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
  • The newbie trail to Mt Panorama
  • ICC Motorkhana – May 5, 2022
  • How quickly it happens
  • Mt Glorious EMR – April 2022

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