ICC

July Interclub Challenge DTC

Story By Jon Young, photos by Dick Reynolds.

Well, the two weeks before the DTC were severely cold, apparently a result of global warming, which led me to believe donning a thick lumberjack shirt (without the accompanying Phythonesque apparel, I hasten to add) would be required for the early morning start.

On arrival at the track, it was evident from the presence of some very serious looking machines that I had forgotten that it was also the Interclub Challenge event.

Clearly, I was not the only one who had overlooked this, as subsequently I was unable to discover which teams were represented, so apologies for not being able to report the current standing of the Lotus Club in the challenge.

It did resolve why the day was bright and sunny, if a little chilly to start. We were graced with the presence of two Tesla’s, which had reduced our collective emissions to the extent the cold snap had been reversed! Clever stuff this technology.

Back to the day’s event. The circuit was, as is now expected, split between the short track (very technical and no long straights) being run in the morning, and the long track (having two longer straights more suited to grunty things) being run in the afternoon.

Driver’s briefing was conducted once again by our own Daryl Wilson, who has been resting while Gideon has been running the events of late. Thank you, Daryl, for stepping into the breach and doing a sterling job of timekeeper and event organiser. Thanks also to Steve Lennox operating as 2IC.

We discovered that of the 34 runners, there was a high proportion of drivers new to the track. This, however, did not deter the fiercely competitive drivers who were soon engaged in displaying their skills. It was great to see that across the field the equivalent of side bets and personal rivalries were being played out irrespective of the overall event. It all goes towards a very satisfying day at the track.

Line honours went to Byron Maxwell, who was untouchable in his red Elise both in the morning and afternoon sessions, closely followed by Graham – father and son teams seem to have something special, maybe it’s in the genes.

Graham Sorensen was a very close third in the morning, in his 78 Cooper special open wheeler, but sadly had to pull out of the afternoon session. He was quickly replaced by the Datsun driven by Ken and Pauline Graham. It’s always a pleasure to watch Ken and Pauline, one can never be sure who is driving, they are always so close on times!

Phil Hart was well up there, pushing the front runners in both sessions, and I understand getting bragging rights over his red car driving golf partner (Dick Reynolds) – though the times were to-ing and fro-ing through the day (mostly to-ing).

Of the rest of us, well we had a great time, no serious mishaps, lots of PB’s for the newcomers, wonderful to see a few more lady drivers, and I think the Lotus club picked up quite a few interclub challenge points.

By the way, I did have to intervene and separate the golfers in the morning session. Very satisfying.

Keep it on the black stuff – see you all at Lakeside for the next DTC.

Short Track

Driver	Make	Time
Byron Maxwell	Lotus Elise Red	45.948
Graham Maxwell	Lotus Elise Red	47.573
Graham Sorensen	Cooper 1978 Special Red/White	47.625
Ken Graham	Datsun 1600 SSS Yellow	47.859
Phil Hart	Lotus Elise Silver	47.876
Pauline Graham	Datsun 1600 SSS Yellow	48.085
Ian O’Hara	BMW M2 Competition Blue	48.607
Jon Young	Caterham S3 Yellow/Alu/Green	48.84
Dick Reynolds	Caterham Super 7 Red	48.993
Bill Black	Porsche 986 Silver/White	49.349
Ryan Black	Lotus Exige Gray	49.465
Phillip Rowen	Renault RS 250 Megane White	50.382
Tim Binns	Caterham Seven SV Green	50.952
Tyrone Gilbert	Toyota Yaris GR White	51.1
David Yule	Lotus Elise S Carbon Grey	51.221

Long Track

Driver	Make	Time
Byron Maxwell	Lotus Elise Red	52.259
Graham Maxwell	Lotus Elise Red	54.161
Ken Graham	Datsun 1600 SSS Yellow	54.949
Pauline Graham	Datsun 1600 SSS Yellow	55.233
Bill Black	Porsche 986 Silver/White	55.495
Phil Hart	Lotus Elise Silver	55.606
Ian OHara	BMW M2 Competition Blue	55.704
Dick Reynolds	Caterham Super 7 Red	55.932
Graham Sorensen	Cooper 1978 Special Red/White	56.51
Ryan Black	Lotus Exige Gray	57.083
Phillip Rowen	Renault RS 250 Megane White	57.943
Jon Young	Caterham S3 Yellow/Alu/Green	58.264
Tim Binns	Caterham Seven SV Green	58.557
Tyrone Gilbert	Toyota Yaris GR White	59.011
David Yule	Lotus Elise S Carbon Grey	59.22

ICC Motorkhana – May 5, 2022

By Phil Hart.

The Inter Club Challenge on May 5 was a motorkhana held at Willowbank Raceway. A motorkhana is a timed event that involves navigating a set course of traffic cones in a particular order and direction all whilst staying in first gear. I studied the courses diligently on paper. I went to University. How hard can it be?

Well, I suppose you had to be there. Eight dizzying courses were set by the Holden Sporting Car Club. Two runs on each course were to be attempted with the best of the two runs to count towards the overall score. In the Lotus Club’s attempt to outscore Ferdinand Porsche’s mob this year, we had assembled a fine team (on paper). Dick Reynolds and Shane Murphy in their 7’s, Sam Murphy in his S2 Exige, Tony Galletly in his nimble MX5 as well as me in my Elise. I have to say that none of us would have excelled at university as we ALL made one “wrong direction” in at least one of the courses. Luckily, none of us made two errors back to back which would have ruined our day overall.

Now, I have done a motorkhana in the Elise on a previous occasion and found it to have a terrible turning circle as well as being a car that had horrible understeer….not the best vehicle choice for a motorkhana. My recipe for success this time was to remove the drop link from one side of the front sway bar. Brilliant idea!! Removing the front sway bar SHOULD (in theory) reduce understeer. The only problem with my brilliant idea is that it didn’t work. I must reluctantly admit that my brilliant ideas often end this way. I felt better however watching Sam understeer all day as well, in his S2 Exige.

At the end of the day, Dick and Shane shone in their brilliant little 7’s. Sam and I wallowed in understeer in our Exige/Elises. Now Tony in his MX5 is usually a front runner with a combination of a nimble car and a wealth of crafty experience in these events. I did not get to see his runs as he was separated from the rest of the Lotus lads and placed in the “fast” group. Looking at the end results however, he would have been at the pointy end of the field had he not had a bad run at just one of the eight courses.

Doesn’t matter really….the British beat the Germans in the end. Next time, if you want to join in the fun, come along, take a motion sickness pill, and get dizzy as well.

Interclub Challenge MGCCQ – Hillclimb Round

The 2020 championship has regained traction in the second half of the year.

In quick succession we have had the LCQ DTC round, the MGCCQ Hillclimb Round and the HSCCQ Khanacross round, all on successive weekends.

The Mt Cotton Hillclimb track is one of the most challenging and always promises to deliver a thrilling “seat of the pants” experience. In a COVID environment all but a few spectators adorned the venue so the fans were few and far between.

Representing Lotus were the usual stalwarts, Jon (Smokin’) Young, Dick (Lumpy Cam) Reynolds, Shane (Ace) Murphy and Jonathan Jones in his beautifully presented Europa.

Fellow traveller Phil Hart was a Lotus ghost in the background representing Porsche, in his flat 6.

The format was super efficient with a pre-registration system and minimal contact with officials. Well done to the MGCCQ for thinking though a simplified entry system, making the day run extremely well.

Competition kicked off with the usual red mist and reasonable times were recorded, albeit well below everybody’s personal bests. But soon the times began to tumble, as we inched towards the track limits.

Check out Jonathan’s snazzy bit of driving on the Club’s Facebook page… Jonathan as he exited the first loop, generally and unintentionally at a nearly ninety-degree angle to the direction of the blacktop, a great save.

Dick decided that his engine rebuild was not delivering on the uphill pulls, so with a bit of basic manipulation he advanced his timing by 5 degrees and immediately started to get his times to somewhere respectable.

Jon plugged away all day delivering a steady performance, however much to his annoyance his times were slightly below par, as reported at previous events he was jammed up.

Shane, in the usually reliable green machine managed to break down coming out of the second loop. The problem correctly diagnosed by Phil was a broken axle, so after two runs the day was over for number 68.

The hot conditions proved to be to the competitor’s advantage – as the track warmed, times dropped.

With so few of us competing, we probably did not bag enough points to challenge the championship. A great day again.

Oh, did I mention that in the final analysis Dick posted a faster time than Phil.

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2020 Interclub Challenge

By Shane Murphy (LCQ Interclub Representative 2020).

The 2020 Interclub Challenge kicks off in March with a Motorkhana event at the Sleeman Sports Centre. The HSCCQ committee are excited to showcase this style of event at a new venue on the 8th March.

The balance of the calendar is largely sorted, this year we have a new entrant being the Murwillumbah Sporting Car Club, who will host a Grass Motorkhana later in the year, this should be truly interesting for those drivers whose cars do not have a sealed cabin. You will also notice that the 86’s and the BRZ boys have joined forces, now branded the Qld 86BRZ Car Club.

Participating clubs for 2020 are as follows:

The calendar has been finalised, obviously with so many events over the year it was impossible to not create some event conflicts, however the committee juggled the mix as best as possible, seeking our which groupings of participants and events would suit the majority.

8 March 2020, Motorkhana, Sleeman Centre, HSCCQ
24 May 2020, Mac’s Bridge, Belmont, TSOAQ
31 May 2020, Autocross, Lakeside DTC, LCQ
7 June 2020, Regularity, Lakeside, BMWCQ
18 July 2020, Sprint, Morgan Park, PCQ
2 August 2020, Khanacross, Willowbank, HSCCQ
22 August 2020, (Consistency) Sprint, QR, Qld 86BRZCC
26 September 2020, Hill Climb, Mt Cotton, MGCCQ
25 October 2020, Navigation Run, MR2
22 November 2020. Grass Motorkhana, Murwillumbah Showground, MSCC
12 December 2020, ICC Awards Presentation, Bardon Shed

For the benefit of all, below is an outline of the eligibility rules, points allocation (Individuals and Clubs) and finally the Challenge categories.

Vehicle Eligibility

All vehicles are eligible.
Road registered category must be fitted with commercially available and road legal road tyres, or tarmac rally tyres to Schedule E of the CAMS Manual of Motorsport. Vehicles fitted with slick, swing groove, or racing tyres will be ineligible to accrue 2020 ICC Guidelines, issue 8 February 2020 points in club or individual categories for “Road Registered”, even if the vehicle is registered for use on Australian roads.
Road registered includes limited and/or special use vehicle registration pursuant to the requirements for the state transport authority.

Points Allocation

Individuals

Entrants will accrue point per event entered based on the outright placings for the event as provided by the Event Organiser.
Entrants from ICC participating clubs shall be allocated points on the following basis, with entrants from other clubs excluded from the ICC points calculations.
Points allocated from 70 for 1st place, decreasing by 1 point per place. Where there are more than 70 eligible entrants, 1 point will be provided for each finishing entrant appearing in the event results. Where two ICC club members compete in a navigation event as driver and navigator/co-driver, both shall be awarded equal points towards individual cumulative season scores. Individuals are not eligible for points for Club Only events, e.g. Macs Bridge.
Entrants must enter at least 50% (half) of eligible points rounds for the year offered by participating clubs to be eligible for end of season awards.
Entrants are to nominate the club that they are representing or entering under (in the case of an entrant retaining membership to multiple ICC participating clubs). Such nomination shall occur at the time of entry with any changes identified to the event organiser before the commencement of the event.
Final Challenge points for individual categories shall be derived by “not counting” two rounds for the year. By way of explanation, where there are 9 events in the year, an entrant to all 9 events in the calendar shall have final points calculated using the best7 results of the year. An entrant who enters and is eligible for points for only 6 events in the year shall have points from all 6 events used to calculate their final end of year challenge points.

Clubs

Entrants will accrue points per event as described above.
Points are allocated from 70 for 1st place, decreasing by 1 point per place. Where there are more than 70 eligible entrants, 1 point will be provided for each finishing entrant appearing in the event results.
At club level, the top four placed entrants scores for each participating club will be added together to give an overall club score for the event. Clubs will then be allocated points from 20 for 1st place (i.e. club with the highest aggregate score) decreasing by 1 point per place. For navigation type events where two ICC club members compete in such an event as driver and navigator/co-driver, club score shall be calculated using the top eight placed entrants. Driver and navigator/co-driver shall both be awarded equal points that will count as two of the eight entrants crediting the club score.
Entrants are to nominate the club that they are representing or entering under (in the case of an entrant retaining membership to multiple ICC participating clubs). Such 2020 ICC Guidelines, issue 8 February 2020 nomination shall occur at the time of entry with any changes identified to the event organiser before the commencement of the event.
Final Challenge points for club categories shall be derived by “not counting” one round for the year. By way of explanation, a club that scores points in all 9 events in the calendar shall have final points calculated using the best 8 results of the year. A club that only scores points in 3 events in the year shall have points from all 3 events used to calculate their final end of year challenge points.
Eligibility for Macs Bridge (Club only) event shall comprise one (1) nominated vehicle per ICC participating club, for which points will be awarded on the basis of 20 for 1st place decreasing by 1 point per place.

ICC Categories

Club Outright
Club Road Registered
Individual Outright
Individual Road Registered (nb this category includes Pre 1990 vehicles)
Individual Road Registered OVER 30 YEARS old (Pre 1990 vehicle for 2020)

Clear as mud I am sure you will agree!

The last couple of seasons we have dropped the ball and have lost our shine as being the all winning team. This year we should aim to knock last year’s winners of the podium and make a clean sweep. The ICC has its own Facebook page so sign up to keep fully informed.

Our club is hosting round 3 on the 31st May, as usual at the Lakeside DTC, see you at the Sleeman Centre in March.

Rd 1 – 2020 ICC HSCCQ Motorkhana

Words and Pics Shane Murphy.

The 2020 Championship kicked of at the Sleeman Centre car park on Brisbane’s southside. Most events organised by the HSCCQ team are held at Queensland Raceway at Willowbank, so the lure to a new arena was strong amongst the ICC community.

As usual, the organisation by HSCCQ was slick with three test areas laid out in the undulating car park area. Just to mess with competitor’s senses, the test areas crossed the car park markings at random angles, offering a counter intuitive perspective on direction changes.

Over the three precincts, tests were established and included the Open Slalom; Off Centric; Try Angles; Noughts & Crosses; Lazy Eight; Top Hat and the Bowler. Each competitor had to complete two timed runs, and with no sighting run, the red mist had to descend from the get go.

Congratulations of course to Keith and the HSCCQ team, a great day well organised.

The challenge is a team event, points are available for clubs and individuals, so a full compliment of entrants works well for the Club Championship.

The Round 1 LCQ team consisted of Dick Reynolds and Tony Galletly, Phil Hart rotated for the Porsche Club, the late withdrawal by the writer sent shock waves through the paddock. Nevertheless, the team was well supported and cheered from the sidelines by Steve Floss, Shane Murphy and Gail Hart. Thanks to Mrs Galletly for allowing Tony to use her little blue machine, Tony trumped most on the day in the blue buzz box.

As mentioned above, the tests were tight and challenging, not many competitors got through the day without an F, G, WD, DNS or DNF against their name. Two strikes on any test and your points tally was jeopardised, so getting a banker time was essential, although once the light goes yellow most caution was thrown to the wind. An attention span of more than one minute, a good turning circle and a slippery diff were the three main ingredients, of course a little driving skill helps enormously.

So, the results; for Outright Club points LCQ landed four points behind the leaders HSCCQ (not surprising) finishing a creditable fifth out of the eleven clubs, lets ignore the fact four clubs could not make it to the starting grid, not a bad result.

Tony finished the day in fourth outright place, with Phil eleventh and Dick thirteenth. Considering a total of forty-one cars competed, we did well, probably as expected to be frank.

The next Round (2) is the Macleans Bridge show organised by the Triumph Sports Owners Association Queensland, this annual event is at the Belmont Rifle Range. This is a great day out with all marques represented.

If you are interested, and it is fun, the full ICC event schedule is available on the Club calendar and an explanation of the rules was published in the March “Lotus Notes”.

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ICC Rd 2 Porsche Club Sprints

ICC Round 2 Porsche Club Sprints Morgan Park Raceway 10th March 2019

Story and photos by Shane Murphy

Round 2 of this year’s Interclub Challenge was the Sprint Day at Morgan Park Raceway, organised by our friendly rivals at the Porsche Club of Queensland.

This Round was going to be a points problem for our club. Without the official results at hand, my guess is that after Round 1 Lotus Club Queensland would have been at the pointy end of the scorecard, however for a number of factors our attendance at Warwick was compromised.

Fronting up on Saturday morning, the team consisted of myslef in the Green Machine and Steve Blackie in the Off-White machine.

Steve and Susan chose the option of a boutique Warwick accommodation experience on Friday night whilst Jen and I jumped up at 4am on Saturday, had a cup of coffee, patted the dog and sauntered down to the track to arrive right on the designated time of 7.00am, ready for the paperwork and scrutineering to begin.

Luckily for both Steve and I we had our trusted pit crews with us, Susan and Jen. Boy racers need their support and of course someone to brag to (in my case) and someone to offer encouragement to go faster (in Steve’s case). In Steve’s defence it was his first run at Morgan Park and whilst exciting, the layout can be a little daunting at first glance.

The overall field consisted of 40 to 50 cars, dominated of course by Porsche, as the event coincided with the Porsche Club’s two-day event over the weekend.

The cars were sorted into four groups, Steve in Group 3 and myself in Group 4. The morning consisted of four runs over Course K, the long circuit and two runs in the afternoon over Course E.

During the day I battled the times with my rival from the Noosa Hillclimb, Bob Bear in his little Alfa Romeo, encouragingly for me I managed to pip him on the day by 0.033 of a second on the longer K circuit and 1.25 seconds on the shorter run. A great result I must say.

Steve duked it out all day long with a couple of very pretty Porsches and in run 5, he was the fastest in his group. Steve was over the moon with his improvement – practice and a little encouragement go a long way, just ask Susan.

It was a hot day and as we approached the last run, I think everyone had had enough, so all ended well. No major incidences on the day, a couple of our Bavarian comrades left their oil payload on the track, but largely incident free, much to the delight of all.

Kevin Vedelago and his team ran an exceptionally well planned and executed event – congratulations and well done.

Let’s get to Round 3 of the ICC.

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ICC Rd 7 Mt Cotton Hillclimb

Words by Shane Murphy, Pics by Shane and Jen Murphy.

The intensity of the competition program resulted in the CAMS Club Challenge and Round 7 of the 2018 Interclub Challenge being combined into one action-packed event, or so it seemed.

Eleven teams chipped in to be part of the show with a field of fifty cars entered all ready to rumble, oh, and of course, hopefully share in the spoils.

The aptly named Lotus Club 1 consisted of Phil Hart (Elise), Jon Young (Seven), Captain Dick Reynolds (Seven) and Shane Murphy (Seven).

To the amazement of the whole team except Phil, we blew 0.000 on the breathalyser, our only physical impairment at the outset was Phil’s back which he pulled earlier in the week, lifting groceries out of the GT3.

The rules around scoring points generally revolve around teams competing against the track record for the class of competition, so we were a little behind the eight ball, but you have to be in it to win it, correct!

Daryl and his sidekick Mal made up the support crew, Jen Murphy performed tyre scrubbing, biscuit supply and general time scoring and video duties.

The registration (paperwork) process was very efficient and with scrutineering completed and CAMS regalia applied we were ready to race. Six runs were planned but Pauline Graham figured that if we did not stop for lunch we could squeeze in at least two extra runs, bringing the promise of eight runs, which seemed entirely logical.

Early times proved inconclusive as the track was slippery and cold. However as the day progressed our times improved to the point that we began to get a sniff of the points in the ICC point score.

Phil had an early day when his Elise started spewing oil of unidentified origin. He must have blown a seal in the rear end (did someone mention a mechanic and a penguin), so a trip home courtesy of Daryl and Mal to collect a trailer proved a nuisance. However Phil had done his work and had set a smooth and impressive time earlier in the day so we were good from the scoreboard perspective.

No officials yelled at Dick and I clipped the armco after the finish line on the way to setting a personal best. The world was at peace.

The usual to-ing and fro-ing with tyre pressures yielded some success with an overall team performance right up at the pointy end.

To get the day into context we need to compare the personal best times for the team with the day’s performance.

	PB	29/09/18	Delta Class Record
Dick	48.30	49.32	+2.1%	43.33 (114%)
Jon	50.52	50.26	-1%	43.33 (116%)
Phil	48.78	48.78	0.0	43.87 (111%)
Shane	50.67	49.98	-1.4%	44.18 (113%)

This was Phil’s first run at Mt Cotton in his Elise, so his early run was in fact his personal best.

As expected we did not bother the CAMS Challenge score board, however our gritty team performance did little to harm our Interclub point score.

The Yellow Terra’s (HSCCQ) won the day with an impressive 101.4 %. Lotus Club 1 rambled in at 113.5 %, credibly finishing 8th out of a field of 11. You will of course notice that Phil and I were under the final percentage.

The one last event is the HSCCQ Khanacross at Willowbank, an arena in which we do OK. See you there.

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Porsche Club Sprints & ICC Round 6

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!

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DTC, Pesky Porsches and a Club Challenge

By Phil Hart. Photos by Alex Molocznyk.

Our August DTC was the final one for the year. It was also the biggest. Being a round of this year’s Inter Club Challenge, it was over-subscribed with the first 66 entries making it to the start line. With the Lotus Club having shown the Porsches a clean exhaust at the recent ICC Sprint Round, the Porsche boys and girls were keen to show us who needed the driver training!

Daryl is usually faultless with preparation and running of these DTC days, yet this day, a few errors had crept into the proceedings. As the track was quite dusty and slow early on, a smart organizer would have sent those pesky Porsches out to clean the track surface and lay down some sticky rubber for the rest of the entries. But no, the Lotus crowd were sent out first. Rookie error Daryl, rookie error! Secondly, it should be noted in all future supp regs that vehicles with launch control and 4-wheel steering incur a 5 second penalty.

The regular “Seven” drivers included Shane Murphy, Dick Reynolds, Jon Young and Ken Philp. By the end of the day, driving honours ended up being just about shared with the larger Exige/ Elise contingent of Trudy Jacobs, Pat Richards, Sion Bowen, Juan Laporta, Graeme Sorenson, Paul Carroll, Sam Murphy, Mal Gray, Paul Torrisi, Michael Blessas, Lindsay Close, Phil Hart as well as George and Andrew Row.

Michael Jones brought along his lovely Europa, and, although it was a little under powered to achieve fastest time of day, it did manage to win the prize for loudest car on the grid. Some may think this a little odd, but alas, the noise is not made by the engine but rather the ear-piercing screech of skinny tyres on the cement start line. Due to the Jag still being under repair, James Driscoll moved to the dark side by driving an air cooled, rear-engined car. They spin easily mid corner, don’t they James?

Fastest time of the day went to Steve Foss driving his Westfield XTR2 for the Porsche Club. Although it hurts to say it, we had to tip our hats to the Porsches today. We will get them next time. I think we managed second spot on the ICC point score, although it was very close between our club and an exceptionally well driven double entered Datsun from the Holden Sporting Car Club.

Thanks once again to Daryl and his assistants who made for silky smooth event with seven timed runs. For those of you didn’t get your entries in on time… SUCKS TO BE YOU… as the DTC is always a super fun and safe day in your Lotus. See you next year!

ICC Rd 4 – Porsche Club Sprints

By Shane Murphy. Pics by Shane & Jenny Murphy.

Round 4 of the Interclub Championship, the Porsche Club Sprints, took place at Morgan Park, Warwick.

Heading into this round, a huge expectation rested on the shoulders of Club members to get Lotus back to the top of the championship table.

Clearly the Morgan Park Sprint meeting offered a unique set of circumstances for us to ‘brain’ the Porsche Club at their home event.

Evidence of this fiery energy was the number of Porsches entered. Like ants they crawled out of every nook and cranny, all shiny and ready to rumble.

The poor souls were unprepared for the Lotus onslaught. Geoff Noble, Matt Plowman, Garry Pitt and Phil Hart provided the masterclass, plus a supporting ensemble of Shane Murphy and Johan Rensenbrink.

We won’t even talk about Jason in his Caterham batting for the other side on this occasion.

A couple of late ‘non-starters’ meant that our team was running lean on quantity but with intense quality.

As you can well imagine Saturday was predicted to be very cool, and when the gates opened at 6.30am (go figure) the reality of Warwick set in, with the temperature hovering around a notional –25c, well that’s what it felt like.

Over the course of the seven runs, Geoff showed his class and was never touched, lap after lap at the head of the field, short or long course, and showing his contempt of the Porsches, not a driving suit in sight.

Matt rolled out in what can only be described as his monster carbon Time Attack Exige, cracking and banging its way out of the pits, mouths were hanging open at the very sight of this black and green full-on racing monster. The machine is so complex a door bitch was required to get it under way, thanks old fella!

As usual Garry Pitt was unstoppable in his red machine, Mr Consistent and with a PB set during the day fulfilling his Club duties.

Johan attacked the course with some trepidation being on his first outing at Morgan Park, plenty of tyre squealing on turn 1 indicated his commitment to getting those times down.

Phil Hart battered away at his times, quickly getting into the 1 minute 20’s, placing him solidly in the top percentile of group times, no cuts today Phil, obviously the homework had been done on this occasion.

The green machine performed well, consistently at the pointy end of the old car leaderboard, the driver giving her a bit of encouragement at every corner. It’s a shame that some of the cars with big accelerators but with drivers with little braking and cornering bottle were hogging the race lines and kept times below capability.

Club troopers Mal and Daryl travelled to Warwick to wave the flag, later in the morning love birds Marty and Suzanne graced the pits with their presence and breezy cheer.

Plenty of other drama during the day with a Lambo having a small under bonnet fire whilst on the dummy grid and a BMW getting fully alight leaving his garage.

Another sight to behold was the red Porsche sitting in the table drain at the corner of Kenilworth Street and Old Stanthorpe Road, pretty clearly thought he would not stop at the t-junction, perhaps not the fastest way home after a long day at the track.

Well done to the Porsche Club for a great event, looking forward to seeing the final result sheet to see how we went. Bring on Round 5, our home event at the Lakeside DTC.

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ICC Motorkhana April 2018

Story and photos by Dick Reynolds.

First event for this year’s Interclub Championship was the HSCCQ Motorkhana at Willowbank on Sunday 15th April 2018.

We had a great turn-up with Phil Hart (Elise S – 22.38 and Porsche GT3 – 21.57), Shane Murphy (Lotus 7 – 21.13), Martin O’Brien (Elise S – 22.26), Sam Murphy (Exige S – 23.54), Steve Blackie (Elise CR – 26.64) and myself (Caterham S3 – 21.37).

The HSCCQ kindly supplied us with pictures of the “Tests” to be run on the day, which I’m sure all studied diligently during the week before. On arriving it was apparent things weren’t exactly going to plan. The Drag Racers had invaded our tarmac, due to a Calendar error, and the tests would have to change!
No harm done. We just had to study a bit more!

The Tests:

maps

To give you an idea, Spiro Slalom is 60mx20m space allowed and Plumb Crazy, 40mx20m. Between 12m and 16m between markers.

It must be said, Lotus cars go particularly well at these events due to their light weight, particularly clubman cars, and we aren’t far behind the “specials” which are designed for these events. As to why the porky GT3 scored 6th place – well maybe that’s just old age and skill!

And a 240Z in 7th? Well that was Ashley Tyson who has been a bandit on the tests for years. No wondering about the Grahams in 3rd and 4th. They’re just, well, just, triffic!

Well done Phil, you are truly a wizard at Motorkhana, Shane for a skilful (yes that’s one l”) display on the day, Martin for performing under errant handling pressure, Sam for wrestling with the new car and Steve for wringing the poor CR’s neck so well.

It looks as though a swag of this lot may be at the next DTC. Great racing for all!

Thank you Keith, Mary, Scott and the crew from the HSCCQ (Holden Sporting Car Club Queensland) for a great event, and all the Lotus guys for turning up to what proved to be an exhilarating and successful day of motor sport.

“Now if we can just get Murph’s head back into his body!”

[Show slideshow]

ICC Rd 8 2017 – HSCCQ Khanacross

Queensland’s Holden Sporting Car Club hosted the final round of this year’s Inter Club Challenge.

Words and Photos by Phil Hart.

The timing of this event clashed with the Noosa Hillclimb, and, while all of the serious boys and girls were attending Noosa with its tricky and sometimes treacherous course, I was the sole LCQ entrant. The far safer Khanacross is similar to a Motorkhana but speeds are a little higher requiring up to 3rd gear to complete the courses.

Entrants were split up so that two courses could be run simultaneously. With 44 entrants overall, this meant that there was little time to stand around and spectate. Holden Sporting Car Club members as well as Porsche Club members made up the bulk of the entrants, and, even though I was not the outright winner on the day, I have a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I did at least keep all thirteen Porsche Club entrants in check.

After two years of Inter Club Challenge dominance, it appears that the Porsche Club Queensland have blindsided us this year. Congratulations to them.

I think that Lotus Club Queensland should regroup in 2018 and show them what “adding lightness” can achieve.

Thanks must go to Mary Caplet and Keith Butcher for a well-run and enjoyable event.