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
The-Line

QR Happy Laps – July 2015

By Steve Blackie. Photos by Shane Murphy.

The alarm goes off at 5:00 am (It’s cold and dark) I need to be in the car by 5:30 if I’m to get to the Queensland Raceway at Willowbank by 7:00 am, as well as getting out of Surfers before they close the street for the Gold Coast Marathon. I am going to ‘Happy Laps’.

YES it does sound like something that you would buy at Macca’s for the kids but it’s not. It’s a fun morning at a race track. I make it into the car by 5:30 am and beat the marathon road block in Southport. After stopping for fuel and to put some air in the tyres, the GPS tells me that my arrival time is 7:01am. Perfect I think.

The trip is trouble free, the traffic is light, the air is slowly getting colder as I head to Ipswich and the car temp gauge even falls a bit. On arrival, the air is very cold (I think good call for long pants and a jacket). We pay our money, $35 for a minimum 30 minutes track time (we had 40 minutes in the end), as well as a full cooked breakfast (egg, bacon, beans, mushrooms, sausages, tomato and coffee). I was right; Happy Laps does have something to do with food! This has to be considered great value for money.

The track rules are simple, street clothes are OK (no helmet required), don’t do anything stupid, speed is to be the same as on the road (which is fine as the fun bits are the corners anyway). I was the 4th car onto the track, and by the time our 40 minutes were up, I had been passed by every one of the other cars at least once. (It did make me wonder how few points some of these people must have left on their licence!).

My Esprit is fun to drive on the track, it doesn’t stop as well as modern cars, it under-steers on the way in, and over-steers on the way out, but pulls not too bad for a 26-year-old 4-cylinder turbo.

I had a fun morning HAPPY LAPPING. I would like thank Matt for making it happen. This is a fun, safe way to get on the track, and I would recommend that anyone who hasn’t done it to give it a go!

post-run
steve-blackie
the-line
the-field
the-dummy-grid
shane-murphy
sam-on-track
sam-on-track-behind
sam-murphy
adam-kingston
post-run-antics
pit-lane
martin
martin-suzanne-dick-sam
jeff
garry-pitt
dick-reynolds
big-breakfast

[Show slideshow]
Lotus Festival 2015 Noosa Mid-Year Hill Climb 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

IMG_8424 Clive-at-dusk Historic-dummy-grid triumph-tr5 mt-mee IMG_4376 1.Preparation-Barry-Mat MG_8798 IMG_3903 img_1061 _MG_4775 as Smart Object-1 122_2201_IMG IMG_4391 IMG_4383 IMG_4405 IMG_4403 IMG_6823 image_272 image_250 lot_022 gw_Lotus line up 20220220_093640 IMG_3400 Beautifully-clean-as-usual Eleven-on-Car-Bench Evans-Motorsport-Exige Group-1.1-first-laps-A-Stevens Mick Sorrell 2016 Ford Focus George Row 2007 Lotus Elise - 1 gw_Mitch McL_29 Garage-7 _MG_9159 as Smart Object-1 IMG-0170 IMG_0076 chris-derek Martin and Rob Jeff 20160522_103934 P1010073a IMG_5162 IMG_5100 image_056 main-36 Mar-main-114 Tranquility-on-the-lake IMG_0205 main-7 IMG_5305 Ploughman's Lunch P1080254 Geoff_Noble_Elise_S2 Daryl's-Seven Secret-mens-business main-2a IMG_3780 2006_08_27_Gympie_Skid_Pan0001 IMG_3637 IMG_5043 IMG_7601 IMG_6305 IMG_8891 112_1295_IMG 21b Chris_Bev_and_Greg A_quiet_cuppa_at_Lotus_Hilton P1060308 160_160 119_119 CRW_7673_RJ n751569074_589937_5489 IMG_0922 IMG_6354 MG_4798 IMG_5167 received_2827874430826376 Jasons-R300 JB-21-3 On-the-dummy-grid-PI-getting-ready-to-go-out-lr vyv-photo-4 Peters-Elise photo-14 Volvo-P1800 as driven by Roger Moore as Simon Templar in The Saint 8-Chris-Leigh-Jeff-Moira-Clive matts-scura The-ever-competative-clubbies-line-up smashed capri On-route-to-Mt Mee-gw Colin, Greg and their Elans IMAG6054 vyv-photo-10 rob'-elise-3 A bit muddy Out the back Transport-Museum-Jag-1951 Torana XU1 main-70 Joe, Garry & Jason Perfect for comfy racing main-98

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