2008
July 2008
Only a small number of the faithful turned up to the June club meeting, no doubt due to the cold, rainy weather in the days leading up and a threatening sky on the night. As it turned out, the rain held off and a gaggle of Lotus were seen, in formation, disappearing into the tunnel under the RNA later that evening, much to the bemusement of other motorists.
With no new members last month, this month I’m happy to welcome
Stephen McKean, Richard Raymont (nephew of John
Blackburn) and my mad mate Mick Cullum.
Mick is a Morgan Park regular and has a
much modified MX5 with a massive turbo’d Nissan SR20 engine. We’ll excuse him
for the moment as he has pledged to
buy a Lotus sometime.
Big
thanks to Russ and Leigh Carter for their hospitality after our blast through
the canefields on May 25th. The Carters hosted a barbecue lunch at their home
and
even allowed us to lay some rubber atop the bitumen driveway, which is more
like a hillclimb! Hope you didn’t get too many complaints from the neighbours!
Russ was a busy man,
having planned the run (complete with written test after),
led the charge and manned the barbie. That apron is a bit dodgy though Russ…
See
Garry Pitt’s article for
more details of a great day.
Round 2 of the Morgan Park Sprints was held on the weekend of May 31st/June 1st,
and a bunch of us headed up under a threatening sky. Despite the bleak and
blustery
weather it hardly rained at all in Warwick and a great weekend was had by all
with no incidents to report, on the track. All the lads were very
competitive and I think we all
finished in the pointy end of the field outright, helped by the short track
configuration. Off the track it was a different story however, with Elise owner
John Bona providing
some great moments of ‘fiscal irresponsibility’. He’d make a great Treasurer.
Jason Patullo has written a comprehensive story on the weekend’s event, which is
in here somewhere.
In my column last month, I mentioned teaming up with the Westfield Club for a
couple of ‘Track Days’. They invited us to such an event on the 15th June, but
unfortunately
they only gave us a couple of days notice! With most of the track regulars
having ventured to Morgan Park a fortnight earlier, there wasn’t a lot of
interest. Hopefully, we’ll
better positioned to attend these in future, provided they communicate in plenty
of time. There will be a Lakeside day, either a Thursday or Friday, in late
August, pending
the resolution of the ongoing legal dramas at the venue.
As mentioned at the June club meeting, we are lucky enough to have an ‘in’ at
888 Racing. In case you live in a cave, 888 run Falcons in the V8 Supercar
Series, driven by
Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup. Club member and Europa ‘S” owner Tim Moore has
a son, Jeromy, and Jeromy just happens to be Craig Lowndes Race Engineer! 888
have
offered to host us on a tour of their workshop facility at Bowen Hills and, all
being well, this will be on the evening of August 5th starting at 6.30pm. We
need to work out the
logistics of this one at our July meeting, as we won’t be able to hold our
August meeting at 888 as we had originally planned. Therefore we need to devise
a plan to move people
between Shannons and 888 on the night. More on this via email.
Coming events? Well, it’s probably time to start thinking about Lotus 2009. This
is the biennial national gathering of all the Lotus Clubs in Australia. The 2009
event will be held in
and around Beechworth in the Victorian high country. I haven’t attended one of
these yet, but have read the reports from the 2005 and 2007 events and it looks
like a ‘must do’.
There’s something for everyone, Concours, Competiton, Dinners, Drinks,
everything! Some of us have already made initial enquiries about renting rooms
at the La Trobe retreat in
Beechworth and I suspect that once all the event details are released,
accommodation will get scarce very quickly!
More immediately, we’ve got the ‘Christmas in July’ run to Toowoomba on the
27th. We will meet at Park Road, Milton at 9am. From all accounts this was a
good run last year and
Wade has got some new roads to explore this time with a lunch stop at Guy
Beddington’s restaurant atop the range.
And another reminder about the weekend away in August with the Gympie skidpan on
Saturday, returning to Montville for dinner Saturday night, and a quiet run home
on Sunday.
I understand that some of you are just doing the day at the skidpan and not
overnighting, but those of you intending to stay need to get cracking! Last
time I checked with Montville
Mountain Inn, they had very few Lotus Club bookings.
There is a wedding reception at the venue on the same night so get on the phone
- 1800 671 269 - or you will be staying in a tent!
See you at a club event soon!
June 2008
Many thanks
to Mal and Chris Kelson for hosting a club breakfast on April 20th.
There was a good turn out of members, and those who didn’t attend missed out on
seeing Mal’s
amazing 2 storey “shed”, complete with a full machine shop and all manor of
toys, including a self built 7 replica. Very nice Mal! I had to miss the post
breakfast run and
subsequent lunch, so I’ll leave Wade to fill in the gaps in his article, which
should appear somewhere within these pages!
Another good
roll up to our May Club meeting – not quite as good as the April turn out, but
close. The record stands at 17 Lotus in the carpark, so come on guys, let’s see
if we
can break it at the next meeting! After we’d
sung a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday to Chris Beecham (many happy returns
Chris!), he gave us a brief report on the Classic Car
and Airshow at Toowoomba
which
he attended on May 4th. It sounds like a great day out and something which we
should try to incorporate with a club run next year, providing it
doesn’t clash
with other things
like it did this year. We are also looking at going to Bowdens collection later
this year, which, from all reports, is an absolute ‘must see’.
The
'McLean's Bridge Classic Sports Car Display' was held on
Mothers Day, May 11th, and it was huge! This year was my first time
and it was a real eye opener. LCQ had 21 cars on
display, which would be close
to our biggest roll up. The Lotus attracted a lot of interest and we were kept
busy all day fielding questions from the eager crowd. Our trophies went
to
George Row for his amazing Eleven, and Wybe Geertsma for his immaculately
restored Elite. Congratulations guys! There was a further gong for Wybe, when it
was announced that
his Elite had won “Shannons Choice” for the best sports car
on the day out of all the marques present! In fact Wybe was so chuffed that
he’s written a story on the day for this issue!
Competition wise, there has been quite a bit happening. Allan
Saunderson has been having some success with his Cortina at the Gatton and
Warwick sprints, and we had a good
contingent compete in the historic meet at
Morgan Park on the 3rd and 4th of May. John Barram had
some engine trouble in the Seven, but Doug Lucas (in John Lungren’s Seven),
Sean
and Allan Conway, all acquitted themselves well in Regularity. Mike Goodfellow
and Peter Boel ran their Formula Juniors, with Mike winning one of the handicap
races. See Gary
Saunderson’s and Maggie Goodfellow’s respective reports in this
edition.
Tony and Michael Galletly ran their Caterham in Round 2 of
the Qld Motorkhana Championships on May 11, with great success. Competing
against Motorkhana specials, Tony finished
7th outright, with Michael
13th. Tony tells me that the organisers also hold “Come & Try” days
throughout the year which cost $30 to enter, so if any of you are looking to get
involved in this form of motorsport it’s not a huge commitment to have a go.
Tony also ran his Elan at the Morgan Park sprints in April and jagged a 2nd
in class, despite some
overheating issues caused by an errant fan belt.
Further to the discussions about our own “Track Day”, I had a
chat with Frank Lui, the secretary of the Westfield Club. They will be holding
some “Test & Tune” days at Morgan
Park later in the year, and maybe Lakeside as
well. Apparently Cams have brought in new regulations for these events,
including the compulsory attendance of a Cams Steward,
manned flag points, scrutineering, and full safety and fire control planning. This has added to the
costs of hosting these days, which inevitably passes down to those using the
track,
but it’s just a sign of the times I guess. They’re keen to do something
with us, so watch this space!
So what’s coming up? Sunday June 15th, we have a
club run to Mt Mee for lunch. Meet 9am at McDonalds, The Gap, for a ‘spirited’
drive to our destination. Oh, and don’t forget the
weekend away in August with
the Gympie skidpan on Saturday, returning to Montville for dinner Saturday
night, and a quiet run home on Sunday. If you haven’t already done so,
book your
accommodation at Montville Mountain Inn on 1800 671 269.
See you at a club event soon!
May 2008
Wow! What a great roll up to our April club meeting - standing
room only, no less than 17 Lotus in the car park, and Tom’s E type Jag.
It seems that we have accepted that Shannons is our new “home”, and after some
initial reluctance, we are getting more and more members turning up for
meetings. Great work everyone!
The other good thing is that our membership is steadily growing. We
are averaging around one or two new members per month and this month we welcome
Cameron Campbell - Brown,
Geoff Somerville and Evan Molloy to the fold. Cameron
and Evan are both Elise owners, and Geoff has a nice Exige “S”.
A couple of the long term members have light heartedly suggested
that the president of the club should have an old car! Hey, I’d love one!
Something like an Elan or Europa would be great, but then I’d want it to be the
best/fastest - you know how it goes! My Elise is already a money pit and has
been the cause of a severe
case of “Upgraditus”.
There is no known cure for this. So unless the is a remarkable turnaround in
the availability of those precious resources, time and money, I will remain the
proud
owner of just the one Lotus
Last month I mentioned in my column that Peter Boel, Allan Conway
and David Reid had ventured south for the big Formula Junior meeting at Calder -
it seems that I sold them short -
the same
guys had previously been to New Zealand for race meetings at Pukekohe and
Taupo, then back to Calder, followed by Phillip Island!
This comprised the Tasman leg of the Formula Junior Golden Jubilee World Series
which has now moved on to Europe. None of our members are competing in the
European section,
but
David Reid is shipping his car to the US later in the year for the American
leg of the series. Peter Boel is compiling an article these adventures, which
hopefully will appear in this issue or next.
Also doing a lot of miles, Tony Galletly and Peter Yeomans who
both competed at the “Festival of Sporting Cars” at Bathurst on the weekend of
March 22/23.
Tony actually drove his Elan all the way to Mt Panorama, raced it, and then
drove home! Peter drove his Eleven in the Historic Sports Car class, while Tony
finished 12th out of more
than
100 competitors in the Regularity event. Also driving at Bathurst that weekend
was club member and Elise owner David Barram. David had a ball, winning a
couple of races in a
borrowed
Mazda MX5. (I think it’s ok to mention MX5 here, as the Elan was the
inspiration for it!)
On the 6th April, a few of our more competitive members headed out
to Mt Cotton for the Historic Hill Climb.
A combination of rain and noise restrictions made for a more subdued event than
normal, but it was still a good social day, swapping stories in the corporate
tent.
See John Barram’s article in this issue.
On the subject of competition, I’ve been approached by a couple of
members asking about the possibility of holding a ‘track day’.
I think it’s a great idea and a great opportunity for the newcomers to test
themselves on a track, as well as those who have been there, done that, but
just want to blow out the
cobwebs.
It is however, quite expensive to hire a circuit for a day or half day, so I
will be making the approach to some other clubs, to see if they are interested
in sharing a day with us to
drefray the costs.
Some of you may have heard about the internet forum
www.aussieelises.com. As the name suggests, this an online group who discuss
all things Elise.
There is a very active local component to this forum, and informal ‘runs’ are
often arranged, sometimes at the last minute, which is the beauty of electronic
communication.
I will be endeavouring to keep all LCQ members in the loop as to what is
happening when these events are on, hopefully so that you can join in! One of these runs was last Sunday
(April 13)
and we had 15 Elise/Exiges turn out for it! Easily our best ever turnout and
boosted by the presence of LCQ members John and Penny Barram, and Mike and
Maggie Goodfellow
in their Elises.
So what’s coming up? We’ve got the Annual Classic Car Show at
Mcleans Bridge on May 11th (Mother’s day).
We will be awarding trophies for the best presented Lotus so get to the garage
and shine those cars up!
Then the “Cane Field Dash” on May
25th – meet BP Yatala, 9.30am for a dash through the cane fields and barbeque
lunch at The Carter’s house.
See you at a club event soon!
April 2008
AGM
Big thanks to Patrick Mewing for his time at the reigns of LCQ
these past years.
He steps down from the top job, and I inherit the role, and hope to do the job
as well as Patrick.
Subsequent to my election as President, I visited Patrick at his
house for “handover” and I now understand why he has had to step down!
With two young ones, and a very impressive renovation to complete, he’s got his
hands full!
Also thanks to those stalwart members who were returned to their
positions on the committee.
Namely:
Maggie Goodfellow - Secretary,
Wybe Geertsma - Treasurer,
John Barram - Vice President,
Craig Wilson - CAMS club delegate and Club Liaison Officer,
Wade Greensill and Derek Dean - Social Coordinators,
and the other new face on the committee,
Chris Stacey, who takes on the role of Magazine Coordinator.
Events
On the 1st of March, the World 50th Anniversary of the Formula
Junior was held at Calder in Melbourne.
Three of our members, Peter Boel, Allan Conway and David Reid, made the journey
south and acquitted themselves very well,
with David winning race 3! Well Done! (Hint: That’s worthy of an article
David!)
My first event as president was the first round of the
supersprints at Morgan Park. It was great to have Giles Cooper back after his
recent health problems,
and he has celebrated his improvement by going out and buying a Winnebago to
tow his Elise with! He wasn’t too keen
on the idea of surrendering it as
the Presidential Palace for the weekend, so I let him off the hook when he
promised to man the barbecue.
This was a great weekend away for those who attended and we had 11
cars from the club entered. See John Flynn’s article in this issue for the full
story.
The following weekend, Wade and Derek came up with a “Fish &
Chip Run” on the Saturday afternoon which was a blast!
There was some sort of mumbling that he had pinched the route from another car
club, so well was it mapped, but whatever,
who cares? Everyone enjoyed it! See
Wade’s blurb, also, hopefully in this issue.
Don’t forget, coming up on April 13th, we are meeting for
Breakfast at Mal’s house at Springwood 8:30 am – then a
run to Tamborine Mountain for a picnic and stroll through the shops. Full
details via email closer to the date.
Wanted
With the magazine our biggest expense, we need to get full value
from it. So we need articles.
Please put your thinking caps on and come up with some print worthy ideas.
Doesn’t have to be much, even a couple of lines and a photo or two.
If you are not confident of your writing ability, but have some suggestions,
let either Chris or myself know, and we’ll assist with putting a story
together.
Chris will even ghost write it for you, wont you Chris?
Hope to see you all at the next club meeting!