Chance of a Lifetime Lotus Trophy Challenge - Jan/Feb 2006

The first event for me in 2006 was to tackle the Lotus Trophy Chance of a Lifetime Challenge. What a terrific event. Paul Pickett has organised this event whereby entrants pay to participate in an elimination round in their state. If successful at the state level, you get to participate in the final at Oran Park in Sydney.

On Tuesday 17 January 2006 I arrived at Queensland Raceway in the very good company of Brett Francis. Brett was there to provide coaching for me from the sideline.

The format of the day was five elimination rounds driving five different Lotus Elise race cars. In each of the three lap elimination rounds, the slowest lap was deleted and the remaining two averaged. The slowest of the five rounds was also eliminated and the remaining four averaged to give you your resulting time. These were ranked in order for the 15 Experienced category competitors. I was fourth fastest of the group allowing me to participate in the final shoot-out.

The final shoot-out format used another five different cars in a two lap sprint format. You jumped into an allocated car and did your to flying laps. You then pulled into the pits, changed cars and went out again immediately to do the next session of two laps in that car and so on until you did that in all five cars. In this format, all laps count and only the slowest average pair was deleted.

I entered the shoot-out in fourth place; I came out in third place giving me a run in the final national elimination round at Oran Park on Wednesday 15 February 2006.

What to do? I had never raced at Oran Park before. As chance would have it, my old friends Henri Van Roden and Brian Ferribee had just purchased another MX-5 race car from Sydney. It was available to lease for a day's testing at Oran Park a week or two before the shoot-out date.

Renato Loberto, a fellow Queensland finalist, and I made our way to Sydney for the day's testing in the MX-5. We managed quite well to make it into the 53 second bracket on the Oran Park South circuit layout, the one to be used for the final.

One other thing I decided to do in preparation was to get some driving lessons myself. Yes, driving lessons. I contacted my old friend and Formula Ford sparring partner Russell White at the Holden Performance Driving Centre at Norwell to see what he might suggest. Russell spent a couple of hours with me behind the wheel of an SS Commodore on the track at Norwell teaching me a whole bunch of basics as well as more advanced techniques on how to get the most out of a sedan car. Russell, you're a legend, a terrific teacher and I thank you for your support.

Come 15 February the competition was fierce. I managed to get down to 50.23 seconds which is the time at which I needed to start the day and work down and not finish the day. It was a terrific opportunity to drive Lotus Elise race cars at Oran Park. I ended up being the eighth fastest Lotus Elise driver in Australia for the competition. Not enough to make the final shoot-out, but a good effort regardless.

Alliance Airlines invited me to organise a corporate drive day for them. Queensland Raceway was not available on Wednesday 8 February 2006 so I offered the alternative of the V8 Superschool at the Holden Performance Driving School at Norwell. It turned out to be a terrific day enjoyed by all participants.

The driving was great fun for all with a few surprises for who ended up being quickest. The Centre provided top class tuition, a great lunch and a very worthwhile museum tour. The gem in the crown was a guided tour through the Paul Morris V8 supercar workshops.

The first round of the 2006 state championships was held at Queensland Raceway on the weekend of 25-26 February 2006. I qualified 8th fastest due to a starter problem that emerged after a spin in the fourth lap of the 20 minute qualifying session. I finished third in the scratch race Saturday afternoon but still had to start 8th on the grid for Sunday morning's first championship race.

I enjoyed the fiercest cut and thrust racing of my career that morning to finish in sixth place. The second championship race was a little more subdued but still a great tussle with me finishing in 5th place. My standing at the end of round 1 was 5th overall in the championship.

An added bonus was for me to sit in Bevan Carrick's Dallara F304 Formula 3 car.

The second round was held at Morgan Park Warwick while Mary and I were away in the U.S. Zero points for me, but still standing in equal 7th place with Will Clavarino.

After looking at the race times for round 2, which I missed through being away, I headed to Morgan Park for round 3 full of great expectation and hope for a great result. My race times late last year at Morgan Park were in the mid 1min 66sec and my best in practice was a very low 1min 66sec. I really though I would be up there.

Well, 4 months out of the car is just too long. The field was again running in the mid 1min 66sec bracket while I was struggling to stay in the 1min 67sec bracket. I spun the car three times during qualifying and once during race 1.

Not a complete disaster though. I ran 6th in the first race and 5th in the second gaining a total of 18 championship points. That holds me where I was in 7th place even after missing round 2. Let's see what happens next round. Hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more track time in beforehand and get right back on pace!

An unexpected treat at the meeting was the arrival of the Porsche Australia Experience Drive transporter and its two Porsche 996 Carrera Cup cars for display. These are the very cars I'll be driving at Queensland Raceway on 11 July for a whole test day. they look terrific. I can't wait to give them a go. The format is a full test day under the instruction of Tomas Mezera and Craig Baird. Forty laps all up with the objective of getting to the maximum capability in the cars on the day. Should be a memorable hoot!

Wow, now that was an experience! Porsche Australia must be given a huge amount of credit for providing the opportunity for punters like me to drive a proper former Carrera Cup car in anger. The way they structured the day was truly a day in the life of the professional race driver. We each had 40 laps in the car across seven sessions, each of which was followed by very detailed and comprehensive data analysis.

Tomas Mezera was my instructor and it was only at the end of the day that I managed to emulate his base-line speed trace and lap time.

I'd like one of those..........

On 25 July 2006 I experienced the Stone Bros Racing 3-up Ride in their purpose built supercar. I must say that it is a pretty impressive piece of kit. It is a proper supercar but with two passenger seats (one next to the driver, in my case Glen Seaton, and the other mounted centrally in the back of the car over the drive shaft hump.

What was it like? Pretty good really. On that morning the track was "soft" due to it being damp from some rain so it wasn't the "hard edge" ride I was looking for. Having said that however, it certainly provides the average person with a very realistic impression of what it is like punting one of these cars around the track. Full credit to Stone Bros Racing for pulling together a very professional experience.

Round 4 at Morgan Park was slightly better than Round 3 but still not without some slower pace. I did manage to improve greatly over the course of the weekend getting to within a half second of the leading pack pace. Bagged 14 points to retain 7th place in the series.

This meeting was busier than usual with me running in two categories; Formula Ford and Sports Cars. I leased a Racecar Rentals MX-5 to co-drive with Nick Leontsinis in the 1 hour endurance race. It was all looking terrific for the first part of the opening lap. I had gained about nine places before being bumped from behind into somebody else's incident. Funnily enough I was the only casualty out of it all and the result was a trip back to the pits on the tilt-tray truck.

The Formula Ford result was less than spectacular too. A coil lead falling off cost me all points in race 1. I recovered to finish in the top 5 for race 2.

Well, this was the last round of the championships for 2006. Nothing startling to finish the year with. Just some 4th and 5th places to secure sixth place overall in the championship for 2006.

On reflection it was a year that lacked commitment to the championship and the results showed it. Next year? Who knows. No firm plan at this stage. If the car is sold or leased we might be seen contending in a later model chassis.

A big thank you to Brett and Bryce Francis for their continued support. Thanks also to my major supporters, particularly Dr Mary of the Cosmetic Medicine Centre and Mark Coorey for DeskMates.com.