Lotus Racing Australian Grand Prix Wrap-Up

A mixed day for Lotus Racing at the Melbourne Grand Prix saw Heikki Kovalainen finish the race in 13th place, once again ahead of the other new teams, but Jarno Trulli failed to make the start due to a hydraulics issue on the grid.

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Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus Cosworth T127-01): “I enjoyed it today, I had good fun out there. Our target was to finish the race and from the start we were quite comfortably ahead of the new teams. When Glock dropped I just focused on keeping up a decent rhythm, not making any mistakes and bringing the car home. It’s difficult to say whether a different strategy would have worked better – if we’d stopped once more and put a fresh set of tyres on, that might have been better way to go, but our target was to finish the race and we achieved that again. Now we go to Malaysia with a good feeling and we’re all looking forward to that.”

Jarno Trulli (Lotus Cosworth T127-03): “Unfortunately we couldn’t start the race today because we had a hydraulic failure on the grid and, despite the team’s best efforts, we couldn’t fix it in time to make the race. We’ll work now to fix that for Malaysia and I’m looking forward to getting out there and seeing what we can do in Sepang.”

Mike Gascoyne: “Obviously a very disappointing start. Jarno had a hydraulic power pack fail on the grid, not something we’ve seen before and we couldn’t get it changed in time. Balancing that was another strong race from Heikki who did really well staying out on the option tyre. He made a good start but lost a few places after the accident on the opening lap, but he did a great job to get the car home, keeping us tenth in the championship. And congratulations to Karun Chandhok for getting a finish!”

Tony Fernandes: “I guess we’ve got to have had some bad luck at some point and unfortunately it was today. I’m disappointed for Jarno, but Heikki did us proud – three places away from a point, and he was keeping pace with most of the other cars throughout the race. Maybe it would have been nice if three other cars had gone out so we could get a point, but, joking aside, it is good that at this stage of the season we’re already thinking about points. We’re in a nice position for Malaysia. We’re looking forward to going home, and really looking forward to giving our fans something to shout about.”

GGLC Membership Map

A few days ago I received the latest GGLC Memberhip roster in the mail (if you have not gotten one please contact David Anderson (ggmail AT gglotus DOT org) to update your postal address) and was fascinated to see the large number of cities that our members are spread over. After talking it over with a few folks at our last monthly meeting I hacked together the following map of club members:


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Each marker on the map represents a zipcode that has at least one GGLC member. The size and colour of the markers varies based on the number of members in each location (darker and larger = more members). You can also get the information about the marker by clicking on it to get the name of the location as well as the number of members. You can also click here to see a larger version of the map or click here to see a zoomed in map showing the Bay Area.

Boardwalk Lotus & GGLC Tech Session

Boardwalk Lotus is hosting a tech session for GGLC members on Saturday, April 24th.. Arrive at 9:30 for refreshment. Tech Session will be conducted by Boardwalk’s Lotus factory trained technician. The session will cover new development and changes in the 2010 Elise and Exige, prep tips for Track Days and Autocrossing and Maintenance tips for the Elise and Exige.

After the session we’ll take a short drive and stop for lunch.

When:
9:30 am on 24-April-2010

Where:
Boardwalk Lotus
1 Bair Island Rd
Redwood City CA
(650) 364-0100


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Lotus officially back to the IndyCar Racing series

Following its partnership with Cosworth and last months rumours about the Indy 500, Lotus today confirmed that it will be back in the 2010 IndyCar season with former F1 driver Takuma Sato. Full press release below:

Lotus-Cosworh IndyCar Series 2010 Rendering
Lotus-Cosworh IndyCar Series 2010 Rendering

Lotus and Cosworth have entered into a new technical and commercial partnership with established IndyCar competitors KV Racing Technology to run in the 2010 IndyCar Series.

The Lotus-Cosworth IndyCar will use the classic Racing Green and Yellow livery used on Lotus Racing cars in the 1950s and 1960s and this new livery will debut at the first USA round of the IndyCar Series.

Driving the Lotus-Cosworth IndyCar will be the former F1 driver Takuma Sato.

Lotus competed for a number of years in the IndyCar Series in the 1960s, winning the Indianapolis 500 race outright in 1965 with the pioneering Lotus Type 38, driven by Jim Clark, and narrowly missing victory to come second in 1963.

Jim Clark Type 38 at Indy 1965. Photo credit IMS Photo
Jim Clark Type 38 at Indy 1965. Photo credit IMS Photo

Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus plc said, “Racing has always defined Lotus and on many occasions in motorsports history Lotus’ numerous innovations have re-defined racing. It’s only fitting that as the Lotus Racing name re-enters Formula 1, we will also race and innovate again in IndyCar. The Lotus name will, once again compete in the top two open-wheel racing series for the passion and enthusiasm of car fans around the globe.”

Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser, owners of KV Racing Technology said, “We are delighted to be part of Lotus and Cosworth’s return to the IndyCar Series, and with Takuma at the wheel of the classic racing green and yellow Lotus Cosworth race car, we expect to be formidable competitors this year.”

Takuma Sato said, “This is fantastic news for everyone. It is exiting for me to be a Lotus driver and I’m really looking forward to great success with this new project.”

The return to the IndyCar Series follows on from the recent announcement by Lotus and Cosworth are to become closely associated through a strategic partnership looking at the opportunity to develop high performance engines for Lotus cars.

The 2010 IndyCar Series starts with the Sao Paolo Indy 300, Brazil on the 14th of March 2010.

1965 Lotus Indy 500 Team. Photo credit IMS Photo
1965 Lotus Indy 500 Team. Photo credit IMS Photo

Saturday Drive Update

Update on the Saturday drive before the BBQ and Open House at Dietsch Werks. We are expecting some rain tomorrow (Friday), but it’s supposed to blow out of here and Saturday will be awesome!

We have a nice route with twisties planned (map below). It will be nice drive taken at a conservative pace. With all the rain the roads maybe slick with run off and we want a fun safe tour. The drive will be led by Kiyoshi (Magnetic Blue Elise) and will be starting from Santana Row at 10 am.


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Registration for the April 10th autocross is now open

Registration for the Saturday April 10th GGLC autocross event is now open. It is a practice event with no points and will be held at the Centennial Lot of Great America in Santa Clara. As you can see in the video we had a great time the last event there and we look forward to starting the 2010 season with another fantastic event.


Video by cxcheng

Only participating GGLC members can register during first week of registration. Club members are also given preference on the waitlist.

Click here to register on the motorsport reg site at The cost is $50 for members and $57 for non-members.


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Lotus F1 Racing heads to Bahrain

Lotus T127

By 3am on Saturday morning Lotus Racing had finally finished packing up the six airfreight boxes needed for the journey to Bahrain and the beginning of the 2010 Formula One™ season. Two cars and a 60-strong team have now made their way to the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Bahrain International Circuit for the first race of much anticipated 2010 season.

On 12th September 2009 Lotus Racing gained entry onto the grid. As the team gears up for the first Grand Prix, the whole team, including the drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, remain upbeat and honest about their expectations for the first few races. Trulli commented, “It would be nice to score a point, but it is not going to be easy. We have to be realistic.”

Chief Technical Officer, Mike Gascoyne said, “Our test season was extremely productive – in general we’ve had very good reliability, and the team is in very good shape going to the first race.”

Lotus Racing remain confident of their continuing progress. Team Principle Tony Fernandes commented, “We are all looking forward to Bahrain; to have Lotus Racing on the grid will be a momentous occasion for all involved and, indeed, for our fans, whose support has been absolutely fantastic since we launched just under six months ago. Yes we are a little slower than the major leading teams, however we will get there, with passion, hard work and a clear vision – our aim for this first Grand Prix will be to finish and steadily but surely improve, race by race.”

Lotus Racing will spend the week preparing in Bahrain and look forward to hitting the track in anger for the first practice session on Friday, exactly six months to the day after gaining their entry place into 2010 Formula One™ World Championship.

[press release from Lotus Racing]

Drive, Open House and BBQ @ Dietsch Werks (13-Mar-2010)

BBQ and birthday bash

The GGLC will have a drive (10 am) & BBQ (1pm) on Saturday March 13th. The BBQ is hosted by Rob & Jen along with an open house at Dietsch Werks.

Elise, Exige, Esprit and M100 Elan

The run will start at 10 am from Santa Row in San Jose and will end in Dietsch Werks at around 12:45pm. The barbecue and open house will start at 1pm. Bring your Lotus as there will be plenty of secure parking and it will be a great chance to check out each other cars. Rob will also be unveiling his “Mule 1” prototype at the event.

The run may be canceled in case of inclement weather.

Team Lotus to enter Indy 500?

Racecar Engineering is reporting that Lotus will be entering the 2010 Indianapolis 500 under the ‘Team Lotus USA’ banner.

Lotus38

Motorsport Director Claudio Berro told highly regarded British publication Motorsport News “the Indycar dream is very real for us. We are talking to an existing team about forging an alliance. The American marketplace is very important for Lotus and there is a pedigree and history at the Indy 500. When people think of Lotus they think of competition and racing, it is important that we get back to putting that message across. The Indycar programme is a big project and we need to join with an existing team to begin with, because that is the easiest way in terms of logistics. We only have a few weeks to sort the deal out because the start of the season is very close. The reunification of Champ Car and Indycar makes it much simpler for us and it is an area we are excited about. To run the Honda engine is not a problem in the first instance, even there we have history. The Indy 500 is iconic and it will only do the Lotus brand good to be there.”

Lotus has a proud tradition at the Indy 500 including a 1965 win for the Lotus 38 which was first mid-engined car to win the race. Further announcements about their current Indycar plans are expected next month.

[via Racecar Engineering]

GGLC is now on Facebook

The Golden Gate Lotus Club is now on Facebook. We are glad to have created another way for our members to keep up with the latest news, photos, events and everything Lotus. Become a fan and meet up with other Lotus enthusiasts from around the world.