Official blog of the Golden Gate Lotus Club
Tyler McQuarrie on-board video from friday practice at Mosport. The GGLC sponsored racer eventually went almost 2 seconds faster than this lap to capture pole for the race on Sunday where he finished 2nd in the GTS class of the SCCA World Challenge.
Tyler McQuarrie in the LPL Lotus at Mosport from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.
Gavan Kershaw, Matt Cummings and Roger Green had moved up to 11th in class at this weekends 24 Hours of Nurburgring when their race was ended by this fire. In the teams own words:
It appeared that Roger hadn’t seen the flames which were gaining in their momentum with flares from the rear of the car and wheel arch until they reached closer to the cabin. The heat ruptured a tyre and Roger slowed to the edge of the track and bailed out rolling to safety.
[via Lotus forums]
Fantastic highlight reel from Caterham Cars showing some spectacular crashes from the Caterham Racing series.
F1 Racing driver Jarno Trulli assists in the development of the Lotus Evora Cup race car during its first test session at Snetterton.
The Lotus Evora Cup race car is the latest addition to the Lotus Motorsport racing stable. Fresh from its debut at the Autosport International racing car show in Birmingham the Evora Cup race car was given its first shake-down test at a wintery Snetterton circuit in Norfolk, UK on the 10th and 11th of February 2010.
Lotus Motorsport is conducting an extensive development program for the Evora Cup race car, with Jarno Trulli and his Race Engineer, Gianluca Pisanello bringing their vast racing, development and engineering experience to fine tune the latest Lotus mid-engined race car.
Jarno Trulli and Gianluca Pisanello provided specific input into the aerodynamic balance for slow, medium and fast corners, guidance on the racing setup of the suspension geometry and direction on the engine’s calibration.
After driving the Lotus Evora Cup for the first time, Jarno Trulli said, “I have enjoyed driving the road going Lotus Evora very much and I believe that the Evora Cup will be a very competitive race car package. It was very rewarding to be the first to drive the Evora Cup race car even though the snowy conditions at Snetterton were fairly challenging at times!”
Jarno continued, “The car will continue to be developed with new updates coming soon, but even after the initial drive it is obvious that the car has huge potential. I look forward to working with Lotus Motorsport in developing the car further and I know that my years of motorsport experience will help make the Evora Cup race car even better.”
Claudio Berro, Director of Motorsport at Group Lotus plc stated, “It is a privilege to work on the development of the Evora Cup race car with such an experienced driver and engineering team as Jarno Trulli and Gianluca Pisanello and I believe that this collaboration will produce a great race car for a range of motorsport applications. It is a very exciting time for Lotus and I am honoured to be leading the motorsport programmes at Lotus, starting with the Lotus Evora Cup racing car and race series.
Gianluca Pisanello, Race Engineer for Jarno Trulli said, “I am impressed with the whole Evora Cup race car package, which demonstrates that the road going Lotus Evora is such a competent sports car in the first place and an excellent basis to develop a competitive race car.”
In the past a number of Lotus F1 drivers have successfully raced or assisted in the development of Lotus Cars including F1 World Champions Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell. Jim Clark was a great exponent of the three wheel drift in his Lotus Cortina, campaigning the Lotus to win the British Touring Car Championship in 1964. Whilst Nigel Mansell raced for Lotus he was involved in the development of the prototype Active Suspension Lotus Esprit.
The Evora Cup race car is an evocative sports car that will offer a great platform to race in high level motor sport. The GT4 race car will go on sale starting at £120,000 excluding taxes for the sprint racing version, with the endurance specification race car £150,000 excluding taxes.
The final design, aero’ package and techincal specifications will be presented at the Geneva Motorshow in March 2010.
For more information please check out http://www.lotusevoracup.com
[press release from Lotus]
Lotus Cars USA has become the title sponsor of the Lotus Challenge Series for the 2009 season. Head on over to Lotus Challenge Series website to sign up for one of their 5 remaining dates this year including Laguna Seca (July 16-17), Infineon (Oct 8-9) and Spring Mountain (November 8–9, during WCLM 09)
PRESS RELEASE
Lotus Cars USA, Inc. Announces Title Sponsorship of Growing Lotus Challenge Series
Duluth, GA, June 25, 2009 – Lotus Cars USA, Inc. is pleased to announce that Lotus will be the Title Sponsor of the growing Lotus Challenge Series.
The Lotus Challenge Series was begun in 2008 by long-time Lotus enthusiast Jim Navarro along with critical support from other Lotus aficionados Jack Fried and Robb Bonanno. To help expand the Lotus Challenge Series to the east and continually improve the series, Jim recently took on a fellow racer as a partner in the series – Tom Hughes.
“When the Series 2 Elise came to the United States market for the first time in 2004, I immediately bought one and drove it straight to the track,” said Lotus Challenge Series founder and President Jim Navarro. “I decided it would be great to have a time trial and club race series where like-minded Lotus enthusiasts could enjoy their cars and improve their driving skills together, so Jack, Robb and I worked hard to build up the series last year. I’m proud of what we’ve built thus far in the Lotus Challenge Series and I particularly appreciate that all of our participants understand our series emphasizes safety and intelligence on the race track and they all drive accordingly.”
The inaugural year of the Lotus Challenge Series in 2008 was comprised of eight events with six at various California tracks and two events at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada. The first year of the series was a great success with full grids and a lot of fun and camaraderie enjoyed by all the Lotus racing participants.
With a good, solid first full year of learning and experience under their belt, the Lotus Challenge Series has been expanded for the 2009 season to 10 western US events (see included schedule), initially, and is now in the process of expanding further with an additional 4 events being planned for Lotus owners to enjoy in Texas. As the race schedule is expanding for the series, the variety of the venues is as well with upcoming events scheduled at the revered Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey and famous Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.
“The Lotus Challenge Series is a very well run organization that’s expanding through providing Lotus owners a fun, safe and positive environment in which to enjoy their Lotus vehicles and improve their driving skills,” said Lotus Cars USA, Inc. Director of Operations Arnie Johnson. “What Jim Navarro, Tom Hughes, Jack Fried, Robb Bonanno and all of the participants in the Lotus Challenge Series are doing is fostering tremendous enthusiasm and goodwill for our treasured Lotus marque. We’re extremely proud to support the expansion of the Lotus Challenge Series as the title sponsor and show some of our most devoted Lotus owners how much we appreciate them.”
The full array of Lotus’ current North American product offering competes in the Lotus Challenge Series including various Elise and Exige models and the track-only Exige Cup Car 255 and the current ultimate track-only Lotus 2-Eleven.
Lotus Challenge Series 2009 Competition Schedule:
* January 23 – Streets of Willow, Willow Springs
* February 21 – 22 – Streets of Willow, (SCCA School)
* March 28 – 29 – Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch
* April 23 – Willow Springs International Raceway
* May 30 – 31 – Buttonwillow Raceway Park
* July 16 – 17 – Laguna Seca Raceway
* August 8 – Streets of Willow, Willow Springs
* September 3 – Buttonwillow Raceway Park
* October 8 – 9 – Infineon Raceway
* November 8 – 9 – Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch
As the Lotus Challenge Series continues to grow in participation and expand into other parts of the country, the dates and details for new events in the south and on the east coast for 2010 will be announced in August 2009.
GGLC members Gabriel Matus and Rahul Nair joined GGLC President Robert Dietsch to take a class win and finish fifth overall at the 24 Hours of Lemons endurance race at Reno Fernley. More details to follow soon.