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
Vyvyan-in-cabin

The Cootha Classic – Sept 2015

The Return of the Cootha Classic, 5th September 2015

Story by Shane Murphy, Photos by Karen Black, Jon Young, Gavin Batstone and Shane Murphy.

Touted as a revival of a Brisbane motoring festival (last run in 2010), the scenic Mt Coot-tha access road was lined with Armco and the Cootha Classic was on.

The 1440 metre, correction 1240 metre (sorry you had to be there) course was laid out ascending Sir Samuel Griffith Drive, cutting through a short cut and racing downhill finishing adjacent to Slaughter Falls.

Shane-preparing-for-shootoutInterestingly, the pits were located in the Slaughter Falls Car Park (a kilometre run to the start line), trailer and support cars were located about a ten minute bus ride from the pits, which as it turned out was logistically challenging for drivers, pit crew and the general public.

To quote the organisers “On top of the street sprint spectacle the event promises to reveal a side to Queensland’s rich motorsport history never before seen in front of mainstream audiences through performance alley, interactive displays and the chance to get up close and personal to the cars in pit lane”, the pits were virtually inaccessible to the general public without a one kilometre trek!

Entry for the event was selected by the organising committee (after applying), but limited to 100 cars in 5 classes, Modified, Open Wheelers, Street, Historic and Unlimited (whatever that means).

Lotus Club Queensland fielded 5 entries; James Driscol – D Type Jaguar (Historic), Shane Murphy – Lotus 7 (Historic), Vyvyan Black – Lotus Elan (Historic), Alex Molocznyk – Lotus Elise Sport 111 (Street), Paul Tredenick – PRB Composite (Modified).

Notable pit crews included Mike Driscol and Karen Black. Karen sportingly wearing high-vis sneakers, as per the supplementary regulations. My ever reliable pit crew was unavailable on the day as she decided to watch the Lions flog Footscray at the Gabba (sorry Doggy fans, could not resist that one)

Five runs were scheduled including a sighting run with the possibility of a sixth run being a top five shoot-out in each class.

Scrutineering was run on Friday afternoon, the only real hiccup was Paul’s out of date fire extinguisher, a quick trip to the nearest Supercheap to grab a new extinguisher and we were ready for action.

Organisational issues delayed the start of the Saturday competition, which gave Vyvyan additional time to test his newly acquired helmet and to test fit the headroom within the Elan, luckily there was ten millimetres to spare, so Vyvyan was ready to attack Mt Coot-tha on his inaugural competition outing.

The pits were abuzz with trepidation as three cars (luckily no Lotus) were trucked back to the pits after the observation runs, having clouted the kerb whilst navigating the overly tight chicanes; nevertheless the organisers pressed on, modified the chicanes and we were away.

Despite the shaky start the day ran well, with the marshals doing a great job and keeping everyone in line.

Vyvyan ran with a slightly off-tune engine, James was losing oil (source not easily detectible), I had a couple of runs with a misfiring engine (cause unknown), Alex was garaged so far from us we only passed him when gridding up. The only casualty of the day was Paul collecting a cone which broke his rear guard and sent him ever so slightly into a solid obstacle. A pretty impressive outcome given the nature of the impromptu course.

In the final wash-up, Club results were as follows;

Driver Class Class Place Outright Place
Paul Tredenick Modified 3 9
Alex Molocznyk Street 26 76
Shane Murphy Historic 3 22
James Driscol Historic 6 56
Vyvyan Black Historic 18 82

Dick, did I mention that I came third in the historic class top five shoot-out, I think I may have mentioned it!

Hope it runs again next year, maybe with a little more organisational oil in the works and a few more Lotus entrants.

Shane-exiting-the-hairpin Vyvyans-Elan Vyvyan-Shane Vyvyan-preparing-for-take-off Vyvyan-on-the-straight Vyvyan-Karen Vyvyan-in-cabin The-Historic-Pits The-British-line-up Shane-preparing-for-shootout Shane-on-the-straight Alex-chewing-the-cud Pits Paul Mike-Driscolls-DType James Historic-dummy-grid Cootha-Map Club-Flags Back-straight Alex
[Show thumbnails]
Christmas Barefoot Bowls Concours d’ Elegance 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_8798 17-Elise-garages.jpg Chris-taking-her-turn-on-the-green IMGP3622 - Copy 10-Carpark-at-The-Bellbird 8a-Mascot-of-The-Bellbird 3-Arrival-at-Birches-2 MG_9618 Lotus_Toowoomba_1 118_1815_IMG IMG_4284 9-Carsten-and-Tom IMG_3911 IMG_8417 121_2167_IMG lw01ka1 IMG_4391 IMG_7135 image_191 image_128 image_011 20220220_093818 As-bought-1970 Rob-Bryden-with-his-spoils Committee-members Group-3.2-0 Andrew chasing Tony Stephen Foss 2008 Westfield XTR2 - 1 Lloyd Jones 1969 Lotus Europa - 3 James Race Grid Western Aussies img_1580_2 model-t Steve _MG_4587 as Smart Object-1 concours-7 Geoff on the track Wades-Esprit-2 Pink-Rolls-Royce George-Rowes-Lotus11-3 3-Vyvyan-Penny-Norma-Chris 2006_08_27_Gympie_Skid_Pan0083 Carolyn-Wilson Jan-main-12 Early-morning-at-the-resort Morning-coffee-with-a-view Tanya,-Darryl,-Bridie-and-Mitch Elise-line-up Joe-and-Garry- Geoff-followed-by-Jason-and-Joe- P1010413 IMG_5310 IMG_0249_1 Derek_s_340R P1060085 F1000008 Derek_Ralph_Broad Hethel_8th_March_1999 IMGP2237 IMG_0323 IMG_9151 lot_018 119_1942_IMG 112_1298_IMG IMG_7421 IMG_7404 IMG_4343 IMG_5028 IMG_5212 IMG_3653 Lunch_Stop 2009_Maccleans_Bridge_014 P8310158 P8310107 P1010005 IMG_3325 IMG_0926 IMG_5148 IMG_8495 main-14 Choose-best-route-in-Gobi Big-public-interest-in-the-beautiful-Elevens vyv-photo-4 Cam-lining-up-for-his-first-DTC Evans-exige-adding-its-own-lightness-by-spitting-the-inner-guard-out 20181021_104824 IMG_4602 IMG_7752 Phil Navigators Briefing compressor-mount Control-unit IMG_8482 no-ordinary-mini 20140304_192949 view-to-the-start-line Rd 1 Presentations-Jason,Garry & Joe Muddy Pits Lotus-Sprint-Results-24042011

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