Entries Are Open for CSCA 2020 Round 3 at Pheasant Wood Circuit

CSCA 2019 Round 1 Wakefield Park Club Lotus Australia

The 2020 super sprint season is firing back up, with round three to be hosted by the Newcastle MG Car Club at Pheasant Wood Circuit on Saturday the 18th of July. Not only is this our first sprint since we went underground back in March, but it’s the first CSCA super sprint to be held at Pheasant Wood in four years.

Entry is open now via the Motorsport Australia Members’ Portal, available on their homepage:

https://motorsport.org.au/

The official invitation follows, with thanks to the Newcastle MG Car Club. The full details including supplementary regulations, invitation and self-scrutiny checklist are available on their website.

We hope you’ll join us and support the event at this significant and unusual time in our motorsport history.

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Your June 2020 Edition of Chunky’s Chatter is Available for Download

Rax Hodder 2019 CSCA Drivers Champion

Chunky’s Chatter steps out of the vault this week as our tireless editor Tom Devitt continues to entertain us with tales and news from the Lotus community during these unusual times. Download the June edition from the members’ page.

The June 2020 edition of Chunky’s Chatter features:

  • Sir Stirling Moss’ visits to Australia remembered
  • Lotus F1 anniversaries for Clark and Rindt
  • Seth talks to Rex Hodder, 2019 CSCA Champion
  • Geoff Winder takes on his lockdown work on his Esprit VQ

Enjoy Chunky’s lighthearted and sometimes irreverent monthly look at the world of Lotus.

If you’re not a member already, have a browse around the site and hit up our membership page here to find out why you should become one!

Ashton’s President’s Prattle for June, 2020

President's Prattle

Apologies for the late arrival of CC this month – entirely my fault, and due to an abnormally high workload in my ‘real’ job causing me to fail to realise it is nearly mid June.

As we start to see the relaxation of restrictions around movement and congregation, it is encouraging to see that car clubs generally are starting to get events back into the calendar both here and overseas.

Likewise, your committees have been beavering away to work out what and when we can expect to be able to undertake activities; so the following is a status update more than an announcement.

First up, the planning for Lotus 2021 continues to be held in limbo while we await further lifting of restrictions for interstate travel. However, we have set ourselves a date of the start of September to make a call one way or another, and based on current restrictions being lifted, and with fingers crossed there is no ‘second wave’, we expect to commence asking for deposits and making bookings then. It is worth noting that we will have to make some quick decisions, so would be immensely grateful for your decision as to whether you wish to attend or not once we ask.

Next up is the CSCA championships, which evolved into an eRacing series during lockdown, and is gradually coming out of hibernation we hope.

In the meantime, the team at Lotus Cars Australia and Simply Sports Cars has organised one of their excellent Lotus On Track Days for Saturday 18th July. The booking form is at this link.

The HSRCA, with whom we have a very close relationship, has announced that the Spring Festival will be going ahead at Wakefield Park over the weekend of August 28-30. This includes sprints for more recent (up to and including 1990s) cars, so up to and including Elise S1s. These weekends are always a lovely mix of interesting cars, interesting people and close racing, so if petrol flows through your veins, come along and find out how much fun it is. I am planning to run the Elite now that it’s undergone a bit of work following the cloud of smoke at the Summer Festival in December.

And socially, I’d appreciate your thoughts on whether a General Meeting might be popular as a venue to re-gather, reacquaint, and catch up? Drop me a line if so, and we’ll get something happening.

I was amused to see on the front cover of the HLR’s 100th magazine, a photo of the original gathering of HLR at Bill Friend’s farm, including a car (might be a Type 23 – anyone got better eyesight than me?) turning up on a trailer towed by a Land Rover. The precedent was set then (I believe it was quite commonplace), so now I need to sort out that leaking welch plug in my otherwise rebuilt Series 2.

On a personal level, a quick update on the fleet. The Elite engine rebuild is almost completed, the Eleven continues to progress at the expert hands of Adam Doyle Smith – last update showed the front clip almost completed – and I momentarily thought of selling Gidget, but no sooner had I posted adverts in a few places than I decided that was premature, and anyway, I have been accepted into the re-run of the Perth-Sydney Marathon in late October 2021, so I need to get her sorted for that. The organisers have managed to get six of the original cars that took part in the London-Sydney Marathon in 1968 (of which the Perth-Sydney leg was the last stretch) to participate, so it should be a fun occasion. We’ll be taking 10 days, where the original race took three – to cover 5500km of largely dirt!

Right, before my laptop crashes again, I’ll fire this off to Tom.

Take care, stay safe, and I look forward to seeing you out and about soon.

In the meantime, keep it upright and on the black stuff,

Pip pip,
Ashton

‘The Preserve’ June 2020 Available for Download

The Preserve June 2020

‘The Preserve’ is the newsletter of the Council of Motor Clubs. It’s made available to members of CMC-affiliated clubs, and that means you!

The June edition of the magazine features some important information, including the usual president’s report, the cancellation of the 2020 Shannons Sydney Classic, notes from the CMC’s May committee meeting, a look back at the Mt. Druitt racing circuit, the Mini Car Club of NSW’s Minis Down Under 20201 and more.

You can grab it from the following link, and we’ll archive it on the members page here.

The Preserve, June, 2020 [PDF]

‘The Preserve’ is provided by the Council of Motor Clubs.

Entries Open for the 2020 Victorian 6-Hour Regularity Relay

Victorian 6 Hour Regularity Relay

Photo thanks to Syd Reinhardt

As restrictions around the country slowly begin to lift, event organisers are looking to the second half of 2020 with hope and getting to work on giving people opportunities to use their cars. The Victorian 6-Hour Regularity Relay is one such opportunity, and entries are now open.

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A Long Affair: The Story of a Long and Happy Relationship with a Lotus Elite

Brian Caldersmith and his Lotus Elite

Lead image by Brian Caldersmith, images with thanks to Brian Caldersmith

When Brian Caldersmith wrote to us to share his latest portrait work, completed during our nationwide nap time, and included some words on his time together with the lovely Elite featured in it, I asked if he’d be interested in sharing a couple stories. A few days later, I received the wonderful story which follows, chronicling a life of motoring, motor sport and mateship.

Read on and enjoy, with huge thanks to Brian Caldersmith.

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Calling all Canberrans!

Ellie Hamilton Photo

Trevor James of the Canberra Lotus Group is looking to bring together Canberra-based Lotus owners for Lotus adventures in the area once we enter the post-apocalypse.

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