July Interclub Challenge DTC

Story By Jon Young, photos by Dick Reynolds.

Well, the two weeks before the DTC were severely cold, apparently a result of global warming, which led me to believe donning a thick lumberjack shirt (without the accompanying Phythonesque apparel, I hasten to add) would be required for the early morning start.

On arrival at the track, it was evident from the presence of some very serious looking machines that I had forgotten that it was also the Interclub Challenge event.

Clearly, I was not the only one who had overlooked this, as subsequently I was unable to discover which teams were represented, so apologies for not being able to report the current standing of the Lotus Club in the challenge.

It did resolve why the day was bright and sunny, if a little chilly to start. We were graced with the presence of two Tesla’s, which had reduced our collective emissions to the extent the cold snap had been reversed! Clever stuff this technology.

Back to the day’s event. The circuit was, as is now expected, split between the short track (very technical and no long straights) being run in the morning, and the long track (having two longer straights more suited to grunty things) being run in the afternoon.

Driver’s briefing was conducted once again by our own Daryl Wilson, who has been resting while Gideon has been running the events of late. Thank you, Daryl, for stepping into the breach and doing a sterling job of timekeeper and event organiser. Thanks also to Steve Lennox operating as 2IC.

We discovered that of the 34 runners, there was a high proportion of drivers new to the track. This, however, did not deter the fiercely competitive drivers who were soon engaged in displaying their skills. It was great to see that across the field the equivalent of side bets and personal rivalries were being played out irrespective of the overall event. It all goes towards a very satisfying day at the track.

Line honours went to Byron Maxwell, who was untouchable in his red Elise both in the morning and afternoon sessions, closely followed by Graham – father and son teams seem to have something special, maybe it’s in the genes.

Graham Sorensen was a very close third in the morning, in his 78 Cooper special open wheeler, but sadly had to pull out of the afternoon session. He was quickly replaced by the Datsun driven by Ken and Pauline Graham. It’s always a pleasure to watch Ken and Pauline, one can never be sure who is driving, they are always so close on times!

Phil Hart was well up there, pushing the front runners in both sessions, and I understand getting bragging rights over his red car driving golf partner (Dick Reynolds) – though the times were to-ing and fro-ing through the day (mostly to-ing).

Of the rest of us, well we had a great time, no serious mishaps, lots of PB’s for the newcomers, wonderful to see a few more lady drivers, and I think the Lotus club picked up quite a few interclub challenge points.

By the way, I did have to intervene and separate the golfers in the morning session. Very satisfying.

Keep it on the black stuff – see you all at Lakeside for the next DTC.