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
Pat-Richards

Noosa Mid-Year Hill Climb 2015

By Dick Reynolds

The word went out about 2 months ago. ‘The Hill’ awaits in July – 25th and 26th to be exact. Fourteen torturous corners winding their way up Gyandier Drive just out of Tewantin on the Sunshine Coast.

This place is legendary for providing exciting drives and eating cars. We never seem to get many takers for the event from Lotus – ‘pussies’ I suspect. Well, not Jon Young and yours truly – because we love it, and so does Jason McGarry when he’s available.

This year we were joined by Pat Richards (Lotus Elise Type R) from Mackay and a couple of his mates, Peter Quinn (Austin Healey Sprite) and Rob Manning (Mini). I should also mention the rowdy turbo rabble from the Sunshine Coast Motorsport Club were there in abundance.

Put up the tents, checked the car over, did all the paperwork, got ‘scruted’, listened to the drivers’ briefing – no mention of the latest CPR or fire emergency practices – walked back to the cars and waited for our call.

Jon was Number 12 and I was 17. So we both wheeled down to the start together to line up. Get a green light, nudge nudge, wink wink from the starter and it’s clutch out, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd before the first right hander – about 90km/h – then left at 2, right at 3, left at 4 and mass panic for 5. Six is flat so about 120 and a bit, then the worst corner – 7. Tightens, off camber exit, and presents concrete blocks, a tree and a few all too tiny tyres just out of the exit. Left and right full throttle through 8 and 9 and on to the hairpin 10 to thrill the crowd with a bit of opposite lock or whatever takes your fancy.

11, 12 and 13 are almost full throttle esses, encased, enfolded or threatened by umpteen concrete blocks, followed by 14, which significantly has the finish line half way ‘round it. Significantly ‘cos that’s where you’ll come off second best – usually! Problem is if you come in too fast, you kiss the barriers and if you realise you are too fast and back off, you kiss the barriers. I’m talking crash, not pash type kissing! Think we had 3 or four hit the wall on Sunday.

Having driven all that; you get the biggest thrill in Queensland motorsport – in my opinion, of course. Back off, ‘U-turn’ in behind the other competitors waiting up the top and breathe that sigh of relief, feel the tingly fingers and cross yourself – safe at the top once again!

We did 8 runs for the weekend, with Jon sorting the car on Saturday, and punting it Sunday for a 71.56 – top 100 placing at number 99. I had the car sorted, so got straight into it, battling Antoinette Redhead for most of the weekend in her lovely MGB, and came out 28th with a 64.30.

The others mentioned earlier: Elise 52nd, with 67.16, Austin Healey 125th with 77.35 and the Mini 106th with a 72.87.

Just for the record, Michael von Rappard (I hope his mum knows he’s out) cleaned up with a 52.44 in the Dallara F392. Michael Heerings of DTC fame 13th with a 61.66, and Glen Hooper with the AWD Riot (seen lurking at the DTC) 7th with a 59.96.

All told, a great weekend of motorsport, with Jon taking 3rd place in Sports Cars 0 to 1600cc, Pat taking 3rd place in Sports Cars 1601 to 2000cc and myself bagging 1st in the same class.

Packed the cars, collected our trophies, filled up with fuel and convoyed back to Brisbane. Magic!

Dicks-Race-Transport
Jon-and-Dick
Pat-Dick-Jon-winning-line-up
Pat-Richards
The-Dallara

[Show slideshow]
QR Happy Laps – July 2015 Mt Glorious Run – July 2015

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

gold-rush-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022

leyburn-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Leyburn 2022

Random images

image_246 europas a-looker IMG_4376 MG_9110 Such_a_stunning_butterfly P1060032 IMG_4858 IMG_4826 lw01jb IMG_4445 2-Drivers-briefing-2 image_188 img_1583 IMG_5307 IMG_4334 119_1977_IMG 36_MG_2543 24_MG_2656 DSC05010 P1060561 Mitch-Ringuet-trying-hard-photo-by-Trapnell-Creations 172_THC22_2022-1 Keeping-Dry Lotus-Exige Josh-George-in-Lotus-Seven Photo-28-11-20-8-11-16-pm unnamed-1 7 At-Nana-McGinns_gw Track-Day-Winners IMG_1430 image_093 the-meeting elan-tas Peter Quinn Peter Stringfellow Paul giving it a belt 3. Rain on the range 21-Lotus-51-Allan-Mike-John.jpg 1-Maree-Jason-Garry-Stockyard-Hotel.jpg Aaron-&-Daniela main-2a image_181 image_169 image_052 IMG_8457 main-5 main-20 main-7 Dick,-Alister,-Peter-and-Nick Robyn-and-Chris IMG_1351e IMG_0021 F1000009 F1000002 IMG_0032 Renault Alpine A110 IMG_9159 IMG_0482 img_1065 nh01pb Rob_chasing_Pato Craig_Carolyn_Wilson 192_192 120_120 091_91 IMG_5619 IMG_5614 5610_G P1050559 IMGP7358 P5250019 IMG_6310 IMG_3639 IMG_8561 0083 IMG_0525 IMG_8044 IMG_0926 Zaid at Noosa Surf Club IMG_20210925_095727_1 View-from-the-Pitstop-Cafe-gw IMG_8211 Tony and Dawn's Elise 1 Dick Newell Highway, Martin leading peter-1 Lancia e-types S1-Elise Dick on Slicks main-57 main-37 Running maintenance at the track Railway-Museum-1 Moggie The checking and the chatting main-113 main-116

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