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
t-supercars-banner

Townsville Supersprint 2020

By Jason McGarry.

With 2020 being the year of disruption, confusion and challenges it has enabled me to compete in an event that will probably never be repeated again.

The opportunity came at the recent Winter Noosa Hillclimb event where my fellow competitor Chris Ching (Evo and Porsche driver) asked me would I be interested in going to Townsville to compete in a sprint event, my obvious answer was yes. Two days later I secured a spot to compete in the second weekend of the Townsville SuperSprinters support category for the Townsville Supercars.

The event was 5 races, three on the Saturday and two on the Sunday each being 25 minute sessions in a sprint format so we were racing against the clock and not position on the track.

Setup was on the Friday with scrutineering, workplace safety and Covid inductions, the event was under the control of Supercars so it was very heavy on compliance and adhering to their rules, with biggest one was that we had to stay in our own Bubble. I set up beside my fellow friends from south east Queensland, Chris Ching (Porsche 911) and Roy Davis (Triumph GT6) and their very capable wives being their pit crew.

My pit crew flew in later that afternoon and got acclimatised at the Townville Yacht Club and organised drinks and diner for our arrival, both guys have beautifully restored Datsun 2000s so the night was a motoring feast of information.

The event was run by the Marque Sports Car Club of NQ and Drive-it which is the group behind developing and building a permanent track and driver education facility about 40 minutes out of Townsville. Have a look at the Drive-it website, it is very exciting as Stage 1 is complete, and Stage 2 of construction should occur early in the new year.

The array of cars competing were from the fastest, being Michael von Rappard in a Stohr where he got down to a 1m 16s (which was within 2.5 seconds of Scott McLaughlin’s Mustang), to Roland Dane in a 1967 Camaro, Paul Morris in an XJS Jaguar. Regulars competing in south east Queensland events, Chris Ching in a Porsche 911 Cup car, Roy Davis in a Triumph GT6, Trent Laves’ 200SX and of course, yours truly in the Caterham R300. The Caterham was great to drive around the tight street circuit except for the main straight that seemed to go on forever (the Exige would have been a better choice) as I just ran out of legs heading down it.

I decided to take the Caterham as I thought it would be great to show this type car at an event like the Supercars so it would achieve some exposure, which it certainly achieved especially on the Saturday afternoon, where the commentators talked at length about Caterhams. In the end my time dropped from 1m 46s in the first race down to 1m 36s in the last race, positioning me 23rd out of 32 cars which I was really pleased with, and no serious mechanical issues or damage other than a fuel leak and destroying a set of soft race tyres over the weekend.

2020 will go down as the year in history as a year of change and disruption but I will remember it as the year where I and the green R300 (Hulk) competed in a V8 Supercar event!

DTC – Friday 14 August 2020 A Very Special Thank You

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

kevs-banner

EMRs, Gallery 2022, Homepage

Kev’s Big Day Out

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

Random images

MG_8802 IMG_4905 Host-Brad-centre 18-Ken-on-karrassel 7-More-showers-looming-above Daryl MG_5975 IMGP3618 btiu-10 MGA-FHC P1020851 P1020848 IMG_6450 P6210146 IMG_0005 IMG_4391 IMG_7132 IMG_7071 MG-8230 David-Yule 10 The-crowd-awaits-a-very-fast-lap-daryl IMG_1083 _MG_0563 as Smart Object-1 yellow-torque Shane - The Green Machine 750 TCN IMG_0350 Giles returns The three drips Which way did you two go_ dtc-1 Ormiston-6 Ormiston-4 Tim-Shane-Best-Lotus7-and-Caterham The-Seven-and-clones Inside-the-Outpost-Cafe-for-lunch IMG_7374 image_152 IMG_8477 0209pb Cracking-the-whip main-8 Jan-Breakfast-at-the-Lakeside-Cafe main-30 IMG_3275 Daryl's-Seven Greg-following-John P1060093 Pau_for_the_historic_GP MG_7057 MG_6961 IMG_0421 img_0950 IMG_8002 119_1950_IMG IMG_7601 IMG_7628 IMG_5052 113_1302_IMG IMG_7417 IMG_5210 image_109 P9190070c1 09c Mal_Kelson DSC05015 PICT7281 P1050559 P1050415 IMG_4067 P1090176 Catch_up_Stop IMG_4976-1 20200621_163756 At-Mallala-1988 Jenson Button Jon cid_440 IMG_0350 Catching up Green Machine IMGP8564 GOPR0370 Mike-Goodfellows-Lotus-Elan-2-S130-4-runner-up-in-Class-2-1963-1974 Tony and Dawn's Elise 1 the-lovely-and-unique-2002-roundie Dick-on-the-podium GT-Cortina-Mk2 Morning tea line up_gw Richard Loti-at-the-Pickled-Sisters craigs-elan Geoff chevrolet Joe Paddy Wagon Men in black IMAG6010 IMAG6151

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