Our friends in South Australia get their 2020 under way with the latest edition of South Australia Lotus Torque covering January and looking forward to 2020, thanks to Andrew Stevens.
SA Lotus Torque
An occasional contribution from our SA correspondent
Welcome to 2020!
Yep, 2019 is long behind us and a new year offers plenty of Lotus activity in SA.
Just a few days after our Christmas Lunch at Mount Pleasant, summer kicked off the SA bushfire season with a huge fire tearing from Cuddly Creek down to Lobethal and Woodside. This is one of our favourite drive areas, and the destruction has been massive. We’ll be headed up into the Adelaide Hills to support the locals for our February get together.
February promises to be a busy period with our monthly get together on the Sunday 2nd, the All British Day at Echunga on the Sunday 9th, and the Lotus Only Track Day at Bathurst on the 5th.
After a quiet start to the year, with a small contingent turning up for the January run, we’re sure to have a good turnout for the February Run, with the unseasonally cool start to the year giving way to a decent dose of top down motoring weather for our February run. As always, meet up at the Sikh Centre Carpark (bottom of the SE Freeway) by 9:00am on the first Sunday of the month. Everyone with an interest in Lotus is welcome.
The All British Day is one of the highlights of the year, with over 900 British vehicles on display at Echunga. It comes just a week after our February monthly run. Last year, a Lotus was judged best in show, so the polish will be going all out for this year’s display. If you haven’t entered, you’re too late, but come up and see the show, and stop by the Lotus display for a chat and to inspect the display. It’s at Echunga in the Adelaide Hills, and spectator gates open at 10:30am.
2020 Track Activity
2020 looks like having plenty of activity on track.
In addition to the usual array of track days at The Bend, MSCA sprints at Mallala, Collingrove Hillclimbs, and the odd special event, 2020 sees the return of the MSCA Interstate Challenge in June to be followed by a Lotus Track Day at the Bend on June 8th. See AussieElises for details.
There are a couple of people quietly preparing their cars for the MSCA 6 hour regularity on May 3rd. This is one of the great ways to enjoy a day on track with plenty of laps in a relaxed environment. It doesn’t need any special preparation, but that doesn’t stop some people! We’ll be looking at having a Lotus team again this year, and maybe two if the level of interest is there.
The SCCSA will again be running “Come’N Try” Hillclimbs during the year, and the MSCA are planning to run some more of their driver training days.
December Going’s On in SA
Remember December? In addition to our December Christmas lunch at Ore and Vicki’s pub in Mt Pleasant, a number of track rats congregated at The Bend for a run on the International Circuit.
The Christmas run was a great event thanks to Mark Tiddy’s organisation. After meeting up at the Sikh centre, the big turnout wound our way down to the strawberry farm at Nairne for morning coffee, pancakes, and some wonderful fresh berries. After sating our needs, and a photo opportunity out the front of the café, we headed off towards Mount Pleasant to be greeted by our hosts, and a couple of Lotus who’d skipped the run in favour of a sleep in.
We congregated in the bar for pre lunch drinks until we were sure everyone had arrived before heading into the bistro for lunch. All too soon, it was time to wish all our friends Merry Christmas and head off home via one of the many routes through the hills.
A week later, The Bend ran one of its open track days, which saw Mark, Chris and David in Exiges and Andrew in his S1 Elise in action on the International circuit. The Bend is one of the more challenging circuits, and very busy, with lots of corner combinations. It’s also exceptionally well run. All four Lotus were allocated to the same group, so there was a bit of spice to see what times were able to be achieved and whether you were able to close up on the guy ahead of you. There were plenty of visitors to the Lotus garage during the day. If you want to know the results, you’ll have to ask one of the drivers at the next run.
Cheers and happy motoring,
Andrew Stevens
CLA SA delegate