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
morgan-park-banner

Morgan Park Sprints – Aug 2020

Morgan Park Group B Sprints – August 1st & 2nd 2020.

Story and photos by Cris Johansen.

It was getting close to 6 months since I had driven down to Warwick in the Granite Belt region of South East Queensland and I’d forgotten just how picturesque it is around there. Coming down from Cunningham’s Gap towards the New England Highway was looking stunning in the winter sunshine. When compared to the same time last year, when the region was suffering through severe drought without a blade of green grass to be seen, this year the countryside was looking so good that I stopped for a photo of the landscape.

Most of the Lotus contingent had gathered at Morgan Park for practice on the Friday afternoon and joined those who could not get down in time at Pit Stop Lodge on Friday night to catch up, over a drink, on the impact of COVID-19 on our lives since we had last gathered. We walked down to the Stockyard Tavern for a socially distanced meal and enjoyed the crystal clear night sky and a great view of the moon in close proximity to both Saturn and Jupiter on the way back to our accommodation.

Saturday morning brought perfect conditions for the track with full sunshine, no wind and a temperature in single figures and, despite the challenges of social distancing, the Warwick District Car Club had things running very smoothly with the first group of cars out on the track by 8am. With round 2 being cancelled as a result of the lockdowns of late, this event was counted as round 3 and ran on track layout E that most of us enjoy, particularly since they had resurfaced the section of the track just leading onto the main straight.

The Lotus cars made up 2 run groups, with group 3 consisting of a Clubbie, an Evora and 4 Elise variants, whilst run group 11 had the Honda powered and/or supercharged Elises’ along with 2 V6 Exiges and an S2 Exige.

Some of us where a bit rusty having not driven on the track for several months but no one embarrassed themselves too much with everyone enjoying the opportunity to put in some quick laps. Geoff Noble was fastest as usual but was keen to ensure that his recently applied silicone sealant was staying in place and lost track of the laps and Barry Mather was having trouble with a wheel bearing that ended his weekend prematurely.

It was great to 2 guys down from the Sunshine Coast in their Elises and both Pat Richards and Peter Quinn kept getting quicker as the weekend progressed. There were relatively few hold ups on the track so we all managed to get our 4 runs in on Saturday in plenty of time to head back into Warwick for a catch up before dinner at Bluebird Smokehouse, followed by dessert back at The Lodge thanks to Marie who organised the ice-creams and chocolates.

Sunday was another stunning day with identical perfect weather for a day at the track and most of us managed to put in our fastest times during one of the 3 runs we had on the second day of the event.

The final results of the event were that everyone was a winner for having been able to enjoy our first track time after such a long break and for having the pleasure of enjoying driving our Lotus’s in the way they meant to be. For those looking for more trophies to fill their garages, were as follows;

Sports Cars 1501 – 2000cc
1st – Gary Pitt
2nd – Allan Hunt
3rd – Rob Stevens

Sports Cars 3001cc and over
1st – Geoff Noble
2nd – Tony Seymour
4th – Martin O’Brien

Morning-light
Beautifully-clean-as-usual
Drive-a-round-today
Great-to-be-back
unnamed-2
unnamed-1
unnamed-7
unnamed-5
unnamed-3
unnamed-8
unnamed-6
unnamed-4
unnamed

[Show slideshow]
The Covid Cam DTC – Friday 14 August 2020

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

kevs-banner

EMRs, Gallery 2022, Homepage

Kev’s Big Day Out

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

Random images

IMG_6228 MG_9479 IMG_0020 IMG_0015 IMG_8618 IMG_8408 IMG_7114 IMG_6878 image_027 lot_007 interesting-roads-driven IMG_5053 IMG_5037 IMG_6635 MG_4311 22b 11a 29_MG_2671 16_IMG_9590 Greg McHugh 2017 Ford Focus RS - 1 IMG_20210905_232635_977 DSC_0264 8 IMG_3381 IMG_0476-5 IMG_1083 Lotus Team 1 nathan-03 Stephen Foss 2008 Westfield XTR2 - 1 img_1058 David Holman 2007 Ford Fiesta - 2 IMG_1977 MG-8183 gathering-at-mapleton IMG_1951 Garry Shane-2 Historic-dummy-grid img_1112 Carolyn-and-Chris _Peter-&-Mal-lining-up-for-ice-creams main-24 IMG_4882 2006_08_27_Gympie_Skid_Pan0099 lec_0190 lotus_Ase_2935 img_1094 main-0 IMG_0230 IMG_0347 IMG_0088 Ploughman's Lunch F1000022 P1080270 IMGP2239 Mar-main-103 4_IMG_9521 Chris_Bev_and_Greg IMG_7835 P1060560 Packing_to_go_home IMG_1275 Scrutineering Lotus_Hilton IMG_5131 IMG_7354 IMG_7313 IMG_8480 8_IMG_9553 Morning-Sunrise Mar-main-46 IMG_6171 Ready to Leave Brisbane Mark-Alan-Gerry-friend img_2017 Euan-heading-up-the-hill-by-Clint-Janson Martin-OBrien-reckons-hes-cooler-with-his-pants-down-by-Bridie-Moran Lotus-Elan2H tony-galletly's-eleven Leanne-Peter George-watching-the-action_ Jon-de-helmeting photo-7 Geoff-relaxing-in-a-quiet-spot-GPitt 0-2000cc-Sportscars.-Garry-Pitt-Barry-Mather-absent-and-Evan-Molloy Mike-Maggie_gw Morning-Tea-crowd sign photo-17 IMAG5960 the-lovely-and-unique-2002-roundie Craig-Elan-interior IMG_9089 Zaid Dick on Slicks The MG gang IMAG5975 IMAG5961 Last chat of the day Door-Prize-Lucky-Rob-and-presenter-Shane

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