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
morgan-park-banner

Morgan Park Sprints Rds 3 & 4

Round 3

By Clive Wade. Photos by Gloria Wade.

Well, a much reduced Lotus field this time round, no pun intended. Not our usual cast of thousands, no, we fielded just five Lotus shared between six drivers. The Ringuet family sharing Darryl’s (dad’s) Exige.

Now it is interesting to see how we are perceived by outsiders. Joe Arico, in Group 6, driving his now well bedded in Duratec Elise, was inadvertently classified as 3,000cc to 4,000cc, obviously due to his previous performances of the year, of ably near emulating the supercharged cars. Thus, he was sharing the grid with Geoff Noble, always renowned for his slow pace, and Darryl Ringuet who “potters” about in his Neil Trama prepared Exige, which still likes to pop and fart flames from the exhaust at every opportunity.

Daryll’s times are not insubstantial as attested by his 3rd in class finish behind Geoff and son Mitch. Yes, Joe was moving pretty rapidly in substantial company in his under 2,000cc naturally aspirated Elise.
The Ringuet’s obviously needing to purchase a second Exige so father and son can compete bumper to bumper in equally matched cars. This would negate Darryl’s parental excuse for being slowest in the family due to “dad warming the tyres so son can have a full three laps on hot tyres”.

As we only had four cars and five drivers in the Elise/Exige classes, then Mitch Ringuet was sharing the circuit with my good self in Group 11, thus he was off by himself for every run. I like the reasoning of dad warming Mitch’s slick tyres as my excuse for not keeping up, though I fear superchargers, youth, and good driving may have a little to do with the results too!

Suffice to say we all had, other than John Barram, a thoroughly great weekend on the track with perfect conditions all weekend.

John, who was running his 1962 (that’s not cc’s) Lotus 7 this year, was going quite well for most of Saturday until the fourth run. Sadly when he came in the faithful Ford heart of his 7 was seriously (noisily) protesting in regard to continuing a race track life when it had every right to be enjoying its retirement.

John decided to call it a day rather than run the risk of further damage until he knows what all the commotion was about. Good luck John, we all hope it is nothing too serious.

The other great reason for Morgan Park weekends to be so much fun is the camaraderie. Always good hearted banter in the pits throughout the day, the evenings no less continue in a similar strain. Usually we go out, but this time Geoff’s Maree suggested roast veges served with Geoff’s professionally chefed steaks, and cooked by our good host Chris, would be far more preferable to the Stockyard Pub, which is our usual haunt on a Friday night. This was so well received by all that Saturday night was carried out in the same vein.

As said above, a great weekend, though we did miss our usual contingency.

Results – Circuit D: 1.2km x 4 Laps = 4.8km

Outright (93 competitors):
01: 3:00:884 Geoff Noble Elise HPSE
02: +0:10:143 Mitch Ringuet Exige
07: +0:15:517 Darryl Ringuet Exige
15: +0:22:732 Joe Arico Elise Duratec
20: +0:24:414 Clive Wade Elise HPE
85: +0:59:407 John Barram Lotus 7 (Year 1962)

Classes:
Sports Cars 3,000 & Over
01: Geoff Noble
02: Mitch Ringuet
03: Darryl Ringuet
Sports Cars 1,500 to 2,000
02: Joe Arico
03: Clive Wade
Pre 1977 Classic Sports Cars 0 to 1,500
08: John Barram

Clive
Daryl
Geoff in his HPE
Joe

[Show slideshow]

Round 4

By Clive Wade. Photos by Vyvyan Black.

Last round of the year and what a brilliant way to end a year of non-competitive competition!

Some of the best weather in years, maybe a little on the warm side, but it suited the cars with track temperatures being perfect. All LCQ participants went home smiling having managed 8 runs on the longest circuit; Circuit K being 3.2 km long and very fast.

PB’s were the order of the day with many falling time after time for virtually everyone.

Geoff Noble got faster again! If you could ever believe that to be possible. Garry Pitt was so fast in the naturally aspirated Honda we all checked in the boot to ensure there wasn’t a turbo charger hidden away. After all, considering his record of evil antics years ago, when he turned up at a Lotus Only Track Day, without telling anyone who didn’t need to know, that a Honda had replaced his Rover motor, who could blame us for checking… once bitten twice shy as they say.

The supercharged Toyota lads, Martin & Darryl, battled away feverishly all weekend, knocking their PB’s over time and again.

The big surprise was John Flynn! Now John is a quiet chap at the best of times, and he has obviously been stealing leaves from Garry’s book, though when a quiet chap who normally turns up in his trusty old S1 Elise turns up Friday afternoon in the loudest blue, S3 Elise sporting 220bhp of Toyota’s best, one can hardly expect the boys not to notice. John certainly surprised us all, though it wasn’t quite as subtle as Garry’s aforementioned antics. Well done John, and we are all looking forward to the future outcomes when the “good bits” arrive from the UK.

Holding the pride of Lotus of years gone by was Vyvyan in his immaculate Elan Plus 2. Vyvyan could never be expected to match the performance of the modern, and virtually not quite stock Elise/Exige mob, but he drove the Plus 2 to a 1st in class in a 1st class car.

Then there is Joe in his magnificent Lotus Duratec Elise. Now some years ago Joe sidled up to me and said, quote: “My first task here is to knock you off you old fart”. And it wasn’t long before he had. And so the battle has been fought and re-fought many times over for a good 8 years, often old man time only able to separate us by only 0.007 of a second. Sometimes Joe has nailed me by embarrassing numbers of seconds, but whatever, we have built a wonderful friendship throughout. So I’ll only say one thing… suck it Joe.

The weekend’s results:

Geoff Noble
Lotus Elise S2 SC Honda Engine
03:54.712
 
Garry Pitt
Lotus Elise S2 NA Honda Engine
04:14.707

Darryl Ringuet
Lotus Elige S2 SC Toyota Engine
04:17.717

Martin O’Brien
Lotus Elise S3 SC Toyota Engine
04:20.835

Clive Wade
Lotus Elise S1 NA Honda Engine
04:26.852

Joe Arico
Lotus Elise S2 NA Ford Engine
04:28.311

John Flynn
Lotus Elise S3 SC Toyota Engine
04:58.450

Vyvyan Black
Lotus Elan Plus 2 1584cc Twin Cam
05:23.598

Of course sprinting is only part of it. We all arrived in Warwick feeling a little tentative. Why, well, the Chevrolet Clubs of Australia were holding their annual get together in Warwick, and our regular digs had long before been booked out. Our wonderful B&B lady, Yve, however had assured us we would not be homeless, and homeless we weren’t. Though a little spread across the community we were all well looked after, and we managed to be all together for dinner each night. Some of us were invited to stay with the Chevrolet folk at the B&B, myself included, where I enjoyed their welcoming hospitality, inviting me to join them in everything; pre-dinner, dinner and breakfast. Some of them joined us for Saturday night where we got on famously. Only goes to show, all car enthusiasts are interested in the same common pleasure; a chosen marque of whatever, and a good time.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention the major event for the Chevy Club; the Saturday Night Street Cruise, if anything could have been totally 50’s this was it. Quite spectacular to see hundreds of highly polished Chev’s burbling up and down the main street! It was so 50’s it was a wonder the ladies were allowed in the public bars for the night.

IMG_8885
IMG_8842
IMG_8843
IMG_8845
IMG_8846
IMG_8847
IMG_8879
IMG_8882
IMG_8884
IMG_8886
20170923_112907
20170923_112858

[Show slideshow]
Scenic Rim Father’s Day Social Run All British Day Concours – Sept 2017

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

dtc-banner

DTC, Events, Homepage

Lakeside DTC Timed Laps

Random images

img_1108
img_0950
IMG_0293
IMG_0368
DSC_5341
IMG_9200
Ploughman's Lunch
Alan
Sprints_Lakeside_Qld
East_London_Feb_09
Derek_s_340R
IMG_0001
P1010416
IMG_4868
IMG_4889
main-36
Joe-and-Garry-
Mal,-Geoff,-Marie
Yum-Meat-pies
Mar-main-118
HCtW1
IMG_7392
IMG_0030
IMG_5108
P9190096c2
IMG_3633
IMG_7961
IMG_8006
IMG_8023
IMG_8064
IMG_8068
IMG_8069
IMG_8104
Cane_field_Moderns
P1020211
P8310159
003_3
076_76
120_120
IMG_1985
PICT7252
112_1299_IMG
IMG_5064
Aug_F02_2393a
image_181
image_241
IMG_4904
IMG_6797
IMG_7128
IMG_4405
IMG_4431
121_2129_IMG
McL_13
IMG_3906
IMG_7659
IMG_9041
Morning_tea_stop
P6210136
MG_8875
Trio-of-Lotus
Smoky-conditions-from-bush-fires
Chris-taking-her-turn-on-the-green
Three-Sevens
St-Hallets-hostess-with-Rebecca-and-Ian-Peters-SA
20151208_205336_LLS
in-qld-again
20161106_094150
IMG_0076
_MG_0443 as Smart Object-1
Ready Set Go
Tow truck
Jon Young 1988 Caterham Super 7 - 3
IMG_0476-5
Greg-Chris-Bray
John-Mactaggarts-lovely-Evora-by-SDPICS
Robs-rover
aa
IMG_8885
Three Amigos
Ready-to-go-Drew-Dundas
Jasons-son-Curtis
IMG_8195
Warming-up-the-Flintstone-Lotus-at-Phillip-Island-lr
karen-black-at-the-standing-stones-photo-by-vyv
plus2-and-elan
vyv-photo-9
20170923_112858
Joe_gw
Europa
barrys-new-exige
IMG_8485
Staging-Lights
_MG_9679 as Smart Object-1
IMG_9103
IMG_6138
Modified-Veedub-2
model-t-badging
IMAG6022
Alvis
main-106

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