Chapman Report
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page 1 The Chapman Report Published by the Golden Gate Lotus Club www.gglotus.org October 2009 Lotus Returns to F1 Grid! Breaking News Makes a nice headline, to be sure; but as in so many promising enter- prises, the familiar saying that “the devil is in the details” holds true here. Some of those key details are: · the FIA has confirmed that the Lotus name will be returning to Formula One for the 2010 season; · while the new team is not currently affiliated with Group Lotus, it will initially be based in Norfolk, UK; October Meeting · the team is backed by the Malaysian Government and a This is the club officer nominations meeting. consortium of Malaysian Remember the club motto: entrepreneurs, and its future “Be there or be nominated.” design, R&D, manufacturing and technical center will be purpose built at Malaysia’s Friday, October 16, 7:30 pm Sepang International Circuit; and Site: Scott’s House (a.k.a. Stately Wayne Manor) · the powertrain for the race cars will be produced by Cosworth. Here are some excerpts from the official FIA press release: Following an intensive selection and due diligence process, the FIA has awarded the 13th entry in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship to the Lotus F1 Team. (continued on p. 2) page 2 (cont’d from p. 1) The FIA also received an impres- consortium of Malaysian entre- is the founder and CEO of the sive application from the BMW preneurs, 1Malaysia F1 Team Malaysian-based Tune Group, Sauber Team. However, given returns the Lotus name as a owner of the Air Asia airline. that BMW has announced it will constructor to Formula One for The team’s Technical Director withdraw its support in 2010, the first time since 1994. The Mike Gascoyne has over 20 there are still uncertainties team will initially be based at the years of experience in Formula regarding the future ownership RTN facility in Norfolk, UK, One having previously per- of the team. some 10 miles from the Lotus formed the same role for the Information about the new team Cars factory. A 50,000 square Force India, Toyota, Renault confirmed to compete in the foot fully equipped facility, RTN and Jordan Formula One Championship from next year is was built by Toyota for its initial teams. summarized here: Formula One program and then As part of its application to · Company Name: 1Malaysia used by Bentley for its successful compete in the 2010 FIA F1 Team Sdn Bhd Le Mans program. Formula One World Champi- · Team Name: Lotus F1 Team The team’s future design, R&D, onship the team has agreed to · Country: Malaysia manufacturing and technical an engine supply deal with · Team Principal: Tony centre will be purpose built at Cosworth and a wide variety Fernandes Malaysia’s Sepang International of technical partnerships A partnership between the Circuit. including Xtrac and FondTech. Malaysian Government and a Team Principal Tony Fernandes It will, indeed, be a very interest- ing 2010 season in Formula One! Calendar Oct. 10 N. Bay Run/BBQ Sebas- topol KAMPENA MOTORS Oct. 17 Autocross (points) Santa Season Final Clara Oct. 17/18 CA Autumn Classic Morgan Hill Infineon Raceway Nov. 5-9 2009 WCLM Las 28935 Arnold Drive F-10 Vegas Sonoma, CA 95476 Phone # 707-933-8039 For more and updated information about these WWW.KAMPENA.COM GGLC and other events check the GGLC website Parts and Service for Lotus Cars Specializing in Lotus Elans and Europas Independent LOTUS Parts & Service Quality and Considerate Service www.jaeparts.com Total Ground Up Restorations to Tel: 805-967-5767 Fax: 805-967-6183 Routine Maintenance Huge Inventory of New and Used Parts Factory parts for the latest Esprits and M100 Elans to Many Hard to Find Pieces Vintage racing and restoration parts for the classic Lotus. Also, pain-free next-day drop ship service for parts we may not have. CALL NOW FOR COMPETITIVE PRICES, EXPERIENCE AND SERVICE. page 3 Shelly on her way to a Super Stock Ladies class win. Photo Credit: Norcalturbo runner-up in C Prepared, and GGLC Drivers Excel at SCCA local autocross series regular Elise Sias finished 3rd in the Street National AutoX Runoffs Modified Ladies class. From the Chapman Report Online Congratulations from the club to It is great to report that GGLC club members Shelly Monfort and Ben one and all! Martinez won their classes at the 2009 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championship held at the Lincoln, NB, Airpark. With nearly 1,200 drivers competing this year, the SCCA Solo National Runoffs is the largest motorsports competition event on the planet. For Shelly it was her 3rd national championship win in the Super Stock Ladies class. She drove her Lotus Elise to victory while fighting off some serious competi- tion from several Corvette drivers. Ben took the D Street Prepared class in his Merkur XR4 Ti. In addition, club member Jesus Villarreal was the Ben at speed. Photo Credit: Norcalturbo page 4 T’Hill Track As a little extra treat, Dito Milian track, but also had to find their (GotBlueMilk.com) was on hand own apexes, as the berms and (the Day-- Sept. 3, 2009 taking pictures of all the cars on few) marker cones out there are by David Anderson track for those who wished to set up for driving in the normal purchase pictures of themselves. direction. This made the blind This was the final GGLC track Thunderhill is a great venue for corners even more of a challenge! day for 2009, and it turned out to many reasons. The track is inter- Dave Platt was, as usual, very be a great day. The weather esting and there is almost nothing fast indeed in his S4s Esprit. He’d cooperated: it was cool in the there one could run into if one had his dampers (shock absorb- morning, and by late afternoon it makes a mistake. There are ers) rebuilt since the last track day, was only 97ºF in the shade. covered areas in the paddock with and he initially had excessive Turnout was light: just 50 drivers room for most of the entrants to oversteer; but decreasing the (plus a few second-drivers) were keep their car out of the sun. The stiffness setting in the rear shocks on hand for the 8:20 driver’s main building is open so spectators returned the car to its normal meeting. Since John Zender was can get into air-conditioned shade excellent handling. off doing his thing in the NV desert and still have a view of the track. The only car that suffered some at Burning Man, Scott Hogben ran There are flush toilets, and the damage was a BMW. The driver the event. canteen has burgers (even garden shifted into second gear when he burgers for the really wanted (and needed) to be vegetarians among in fourth since he was at maximum us!), smoothies and RPM in third at the time. The more for sale. engine did not like being over- Lotus cars were revved that much, and the unfortu- well represented for nate result was some serious the day, with 1 engine damage. The car had Esprit, 3 Europas, 1 arrived on a trailer, so at least Seven, 4 Elise and 4 getting home was not a problem. Exige. And for some Dennis Barnedt got his grey extra excitment, we Elise very very dirty inside and out ran the track ‘back- when he spun off into the dirt after wards’ (clockwise) the bypass. this day and used the Overall, though, there were bypass. very few spins all day since drivers Fast drivers know were honoring their (and their car’s) limits as Scott had in- With so few cars vying for track that taking the inside line over the structed at the driver’s meeting. As time, Scott changed the setup so bypass while going reasonably fast a result, everyone drove home that there were only two run means getting a bit of air (aka with a big smile. The folks I talked groups, and each group had a 30- going airborne)—but not everyone to had a great time and all the minute session. The Restricted really wanted to get their car off track time they wanted. Passing group ran on the hour, and the ground. We learned from the the Open Passing group ran on the Thunderhill staff that clubs only run half hour. We began with the the track backwards a couple Restricted Passing group at 9 AM times a year so for just about and rotated on schedule until track everyone the track felt completely closing at 5 PM (with a one hour new. That meant that everyone break for lunch). had to not only learn the ‘new’ page 5 So if you start planning now, you can look forward to bringing your Lotus to a GGLC track day in 2010! Track days are lots of fun, but most of the GGLC track days do not allow first-time drivers. So if you are thinking about driving in one, you should get the training you need from the folks at hookedondriving.com or at one of the commercial driving schools like those run by Jim Russell or Skip Barber (see the www.gglotus.org track day ‘INFO’ link for specific links to these schools). With that training under your belt, you can safely participate in a GGLC track day. page 6 N. Bay Run/ Season Finale Future Events BBQ AutoX Reminder Announcement / New Site 2009 WCLM The North Bay fun run and The paperwork has been signed, Five days of Lotus fun happening BBQ featuring the backroads of and we will be trying out a new site Nov.