Registration for GGLC Autocross #3 (May 11) and British Car Autocross (Cow Palace, June 22) now open

April 15th, 2013

Round 1 and Round 2 were fantastic events, thank you for supporting them. Registration for 2 upcoming events are now open!

GGLC AUTOCROSS ROUND#3 – MAY 11, 2013 – MARINA AIRPORT
Registration for Round 3, May 11th is now open for GGLC members. Sign up at http://gglotus.motorsportreg.com

The entry is still $60 for members and $70 for non-members (includes lunch). First time autox’ers (first time at a GGLC event) are eligible for a discount, so invite your friends along too. Non-members will be able to register in one week.

We continue our 8 classes. Please read over the details on the club page.

For Lotus Elise/Exige/Evora drivers, please choose your class that you want to participate in and also use the classification tool to calculate your index points. For non-Lotus cars, please use the appropriate SCCA class.

BRITISH CAR AUTOCROSS – JUNE 22, 2013 – COW PALACE, DALY CITY CA
The GGLC is estatic to partner with Triumph Travelers Sport Car Club to present the British Car Autocross on June 22nd at the Cow Palace in Daly City. This event is a celebration of British cars and open to owners/drivers of the likes of Jaguar, MG, Triumph, Morgan, McLaren, Mini, Austin, Marcos, TVR, Lotus and other British marques.

Registration is now open at http://gglotus.motorsportreg.com

Entry is only $40 for GGLC members (non-members is $45), lunch is NOT included, but there will be food trucks on site.

This is a practice event, no-points.

We will use the 3 run-group format like we do at GGLC events. This is an invitational event and space is limited to 75 drivers. Sign-up early to secure a spot in this special day!

Don’t hesitate to contact Colm or myself if you have any questions about any of this year’s events or any other autox topic – autox@gglotus.org

See you at the track!
Kiyoshi (on behalf of Colm – GGLC Autocross Chairman)

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Kimi scores his second podium of the year

April 15th, 2013

A celebratory end for Lotus F1® Team with a P2 finish for Kimi and the third consecutive points win for Romain in what was a nerve-shredding third round of the FIA 2013 World Championship Formula One® race in Shanghai, China.

The battle began early for Kimi as despite him having qualified second, a poor grid start meant he lost early race positioning. By lap 16, a track tussle with Sergio Pérez saw Kimi damage his nose cone culminating in a loss of downforce for the Finn. However, showing the spirit of a Chinese martial arts warrior, Kimi took on the opposition tenaciously, employing a well-thought out strategy that saw him conquer the challenges with tactical use of KERS (kinetic recovery system), DRS (drag reduction system) and tyre preservation. Needling his way through the grid traffic and deciding not to lose time by replacing the broken nose cone. Kimi’s assault in the black, gold and red steed saw him take the chequered flag in P2 much to the delight of the sea of Räikkönen fans all sporting their blue and white flags and black and gold Lotus banners.

Romain Grosjean also once more delivered important points for the team finishing in ninth place despite suffering with tyre wear issues.

Kimi Räikkönen, P2, E21-03 “Second wasn’t quite what we wanted, but in the circumstances it was the best that we could manage. I’m not 100% happy because we didn’t win, but it is what it is and second place is a good result after a bad start and the incident with Sergio [Perez]. It was quite difficult out there; obviously the car is not designed like that otherwise we would use it all the time, but I was surprised how good it was still. Of course there were some handling issues which was not ideal, but we just had to try to live with it and we still had pretty okay speed.”

Romain Grosjean, P9, E21-01 “I couldn’t get the performance I wanted. It was a long, tough race and again we were not able to make it work quite as well as we wanted. I’m definitely not happy with ninth place; we started P6 and thought we had a good chance to end up within the top five, but unfortunately we could not manage it. I did as much as I could, but I couldn’t get the performance I wanted and being in traffic of course affects this. It was good to score some points for the team, but I want more in Bahrain for sure.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal “It’s a good result for the team. Kimi showed once more why he’s one of the very best drivers in the world by being one of the fastest on track despite sustaining damage to his car. As a team we were able to give him a good strategy allowing us to beat Lewis [Hamilton] and Mercedes in a close battle. Romain had a more difficult day, but he scored points in another race which is positive and we feel he’s reached a turning point now where things will start coming together. Without the poor start and without the incident for Kimi, we definitely would have fought for a win.

We now look forward to the forth round of the competition that takes place in Bahrain, next weekend, 22nd April 2013.

Press release from Lotus

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Lotus returns to the Big Screen

March 27th, 2013

This weekend ‘The Host’ hits cinemas and stars the Lotus Evora amongst its beautiful cast.

Evora - The Host

The long awaited movie adaptation of ‘The Host’ written by Stephanie Myer, author of ‘The Twilight Saga’ premiered in LA on 19th March and will be on international release from March 22nd at which time big screens all over the world will be alight with a fleet of awesome looking Lotus Evoras.

The movie follows the plight of ‘Melanie’ played by Irish actress Saoirse Ronan as she battles an unforeseen enemy lead by ‘Seeker’ played by Hollywood favourite Diane Kruger. A romantic action-adventure which sees Melanie join resistance fighters as they battle for the survival of the human race, ‘The Host’ is a tale of spirit, individuality and determination – traits that echo Lotus’ own character.

Treated in a chrome vinyl wrap and fitted with special-effect lighting, the Evoras are driven by the ‘baddies’ of the piece. It is the mission of ‘The Seekers’ to rid earth from all human negativity achieving this by invading human ‘hosts’ and cleansing their minds and erasing their memories to build a neutral race devoid of character and emotion.

Negotiations for a “hero car for ‘Lead Seeker’” started in early October 2011 and by the end of the month Lotus had agreed to provide a number of Evoras to the project directed by its screenwriter Andrew Niccol who was looking for an extraordinary car for the role. The Lotus Evora was chosen for its stunning and futuristic aesthetic, which when juxtaposed with contemporary locations, gives a truly alien element to the Sci-Fi movie.

Lotus has a strong cinematic history; with appearances in two ‘Bond’ films – in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ out-racing a motorbike and helicopter before taking to the sea as the iconic submersible Esprit, and in a cool role in ‘For Your Eyes Only’; “cornering like its on rails” with Julia Roberts at the wheel in ‘Pretty Woman’; and taking part in an adrenaline fuelled chase sequence along the San Francisco coastline with Sharon Stone in ‘Basic Instinct’.

No doubt the dynamic driving scenes featured in ‘The Host’ will take their place alongside these exciting movie moments as stand out performances for Lotus.

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First race, first win, Kimi Räikkönen is on top down under

March 18th, 2013

Lotus fans around the world celebrated as Kimi Räikkönen takes the chequered flag, racing to victory during the first round of the FIA 2013 World Championship Formula One® race in Melbourne, Australia.

Kimi Melbourne

A force to be reckoned with, Kimi Räikkönen proved Lotus was the team to beat during a race marked by the threat of rain, and where tyre strategy was critical in the racing game plan. With the other front runners taking 3 pit stops, Kimi was able to preserve tyre condition, docking only twice over the 58 lap Albert Park course. From the off, the E21 showed its prowess, with a race pace that was nothing less than impressive, the fastest lap of the race 1:29.274. What marks the 20th win in his career, and the 81st for the Lotus name in F1® the former World Champion is now leading the 2013 F1® World Championship race.

Kimi Räikkönen: “Our plan was to do two stops and though its difficult in the first races to know when to stop and not go too early, we got it exactly right. The car has been very good all weekend, we were a bit disappointed qualifying 7th but with the conditions it wasn’t so easy. I knew if I went through the first laps in a good position we should give ourselves a good chance for fighting for the podium. It turned out to be not so difficult.”

Eric Bouillier: “The best start you can ever dream of. I am very proud of our team today.”

Team mate Romain Grosjean finished 10th, securing an important point for the team. All eyes are firmly on next weekends assault where the second round of the competition takes place at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

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Registration for the April 6 Autocross is now open

March 18th, 2013

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2013 Golden Gate Lotus Club autox season.

The second event of the season is now open for registration for club members on MotorsportReg. Register early as a sell out is expected. For an added challenge we plan to run the course in the reverse direction in the afternoon!

The price is the same as last year. First time autox’ers (first time at a GGLC event) are eligible for a discount, so invite your friends along too. Non-members will be able to register one week later.

This season we have 8 classes that you can participate in. Please read over the details on the club autocross page at

For Lotus Elise/Exige/Evora drivers, please use the classification tool to calculate your index points and choose your class. For non-Lotus cars, please use the appropriate SCCA class.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this year’s events or any other autox topic.

See you all next month,
Colm.

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