By James Driscoll, photos Shane Murphy.
The call to action came from Dick Reynolds on Facebook for Lotus Club members to do their duty for the InterClub Championship as the usual participants were racing at Morgan Park Sprints. I put my hand up dutifully.
Saturday 1st Sept my pit girl (wife) and I loaded up the Jaguar D Type in the car trailer and headed for Queensland Raceway at Willowbank. As we arrived, we were ushered to a pit by Shane Murphy, next to the other Lotus members.
Seeing as it was my first time ever doing sprints, I felt that I would need an interpreter to assist me with drivers’ briefing as I am hearing impaired. The interpreter would sign to me in Auslan what was being said and made sure I did not miss out on anything.
By 9am the drivers’ briefing was done and everyone was ready to race. Dick Reynolds in his red Caterham and Shane Murphy in his ‘Green Machine’ went on the National Circuit in Group 1 which consisted of two warm up laps and 4 racing laps, then one warm down lap before heading back to the pits for Group 2 which was mainly Porsche Club members.
Time for Group 3, which was myself in the Jag, Evan Molloy in his supercharged silver Exige and Sam Murphy in his blue Exige. I went off the track at turn 4 after sliding on the kerb but quickly corrected the car. Sam ended up breaking his front splitter on a kerb. There were two rounds on this layout which is as used by the V8 Supercars.
The next two rounds all competitors used the shorter layout which is the Clubman Circuit. It was great to see some healthy competition going on as Shane and Dick battled to see who would perform the best on track! Phil Hart and Daryl Wilson came to cheer us on – nice of them to come along especially as it was Daryl’s birthday! Evan had a great battle with a rival for first place and did very well. I could not catch either Sam or Evan – too fast for me! On the last race, I ended up doing a full spin-out exiting turn 2 in 5th gear and praying I wouldn’t hit the gravel trap. Phew! I didn’t!
We all were done by 12:30 and everybody went their separate ways. We gained some points for ICC and are currently sitting in first place only by just. The Porsche Club are nipping at our heels, so come on everyone help our Club win the championship!
