Morgan Park Sprints 2nd and 3rd March 2019
Story by Geoff Noble, photos by Trapnell Creations.
A record number of Lotus descended on Warwick for the first round of the Supersprint series. This event is growing exponentially, and is now difficult to become involved in, such is its popularity.
LCQ was represented by; Matt Plowman, Tony Seymour, Jason Patullo, Clive Wade, Martin O’Brien, John Flynn, Rob Stevens, Joe Arico, Geoff Noble and Garry Pitt, along with father and son combinations of George & Andrew Row, Ken & Liam Philp and Darryl & Mitch Ringuet. All of the former were fielding Elise/Exige variants, including newcomer Cris Johansen in a Honda powered S1 Elise. Mike Goodfellow also had a run in his Caterham.
Friday practice took a toll, with Garry out for the weekend (engine). The Philps looked to be gone with a broken shock absorber, but Matt from Morgan Park Performance Centre was able to weld the bits back together. Joe had a mystery brake drama, and Martin was chasing handling gremlins.
Back to ‘homebase’ at Pitstop Lodge for pre-dinner drinks, then onto the Condamine Club for dinner for most, with a few of us sampling the local Dominos pizza offering.
Changeable weather on Saturday meant tricky conditions, and not much grip at times. It was still fun though. Despite coming back from the broken shock drama of the previous day, the Philps’ weekend was curtailed with clutch/gearbox issues, while Joe fell ill and was unable to see any track time at all.
Saturday evening saw us enjoying a BBQ back at homebase – this is the best part of these weekends – the social aspect!
Sunday’s weather was even more ‘iffy’ than Saturday, and there was a bit of tyre changing happening to try to second guess the sprinkles. Ironically, the sun came out after we had packed up and were leaving. Still a great weekend had by all, well, maybe not all, but most. LCQ runners filled 9 of the top 20 positions outright, with a number of class trophies too!
