[chrisp993]

Our track event dates for 2009 are now locked down

- Gingerman Raceway: Monday May 18th
- Waterford Hills: Thursday July 9th and Tuesday August 4th
- Grattan Raceway: Weekend of October 3rd & 4th

Our first track event, May 18th at Gingerman Raceway is fast approaching!
Gingerman is a relatively new track, located some 6 miles east of the resort town of South Haven on the west coast of Michigan and approximately 180 miles from Birmingham. In contrast to Waterford it has very friendly run-off areas, the track is wider and the few walls and barriers are set some distance from the track surface. It is a great track, both for novices due to the very high level of safety, but offers significant technical challenge with decreasing radius, complex and sequenced corners which satisfy everyone up to and including advanced drivers.

To get a good overview of the track see the video below: Gingerman on Veoh

More details at the track website at Gingerman Raceway and a Track Map and Description can be found at: Trackpedia. Last but no means least, Kathy Rapier has put some great photos of last year's event up at:
Smugmug

Registration: as usual, registration for the Event is at MotorsportReg.com.

Cost: The event costs $150 for Members registering before May 4th and $175 thereafter. Membership is required to attend the event – the cost for Non-Members is $175 which includes membership cost of $25.

Directions & Distance: Gingerman Raceway is near Exit 20 on I-196. From Exit 20, take Phoenix Road East approximately 6 miles. From Birmingham it takes around 3 hours to travel the 180 miles to the track – very possible to travel out and back in a day, but easier to travel out the night before – see “Lodging” below

Map: Google Maps

Lodging: we have again secured a group rate from $70/night at the Comfort Suites located just 6 miles west of the track. This hotel will be our “home base” and we will be gathering there on the Sunday evening before the event. The group rate is valid for the night of Sunday, May 17th and for a limited number of rooms – book early!

Comfort Suites Hotel
1755 Phoenix Street , South Haven, MI, US, 49090
Phone: (269) 639-2014
Comfort Suites South Haven

More Information: The Pre-Event Packet is available for download from our website at Great Lakes Lotus Club.

 

[BobaFettm]

These events can't come soon enough! Thanks for getting us all the info and organizing this Chris.

 

[Bender Rodríguez]

What time is everyone showing up to waterford today?

 

[Ryephile]

Is the October 3&4 weekend @ Grattan still on? When is sign up going to be open?

 

[chrisp993]

Yes it's still on ...... I just need a couple of days to finalize the event in MotorsportReg :shrug:

Watch this space!

 

[chrisp993]

OK, registration will be live at: GLLC @ Motorsportreg after about 3pm EST

The event is a bit trickier to set up than usual (multi-day, with option for Friday for Advanced Drivers) so let me know if something looks wrong .......

 

[Ryephile]

Wasn't trying to be pushy, just curious. I see you got the registration up! :clap:

 

[chrisp993]

No prob .... I needed the push

 

[Confidential]

Do you know of anyone signed up from the Chicago area?

I'm thinking about signing up, but my car might head back to Detroit.

 

[chrisp993]

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR GRATTAN RACEWAY!

For some perspective and more information on the track, check out the in-car video from last year’s event at: GLLC @ Grattan Video as this really shows the elevation change and twisty nature of this great track. The track website is at Grattan Raceway and more details, including a Track Map and Description can be found at: Grattan @ Trackpedia

Date: Weekend of October 3rd & 4th plus Advanced Drivers Day on Friday October 2nd

Registration: Usual place, registration for the Event is at GLLC @ MotorsportReg.

Cost:
- Members event cost is $300 for the Weekend or $200 for Saturday only.
- Non-Members cost is is $325 i.e. same as above, but including Membership.
- Friday is restricted to Instructors and Advanced Drivers at a cost of $100 and requires sign-up for the Weekend.

Lodging: we are returning to the Holiday Inn Express on the north side of Grand Rapids. We have a Group Rate of $79 + Taxes in the name of “Lotus Club”

Holiday Inn Express
358 River Ridge Dr. NW, Walker, MI 49544
Telephone: (616) 647-4100, Fax: (616) 647-4101
Holiday Inn Grand Rapids

 

[chrisp993]

Rob

There are just a couple of people signed up from Chicago area right now - I would expect more to come

 

[blairellis]

Looks like it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. You guys still planning on racing in the rain?

 

[Ryephile]

Thanks to the Lotus club for an awesome weekend! It was very wet on Saturday and made for excellent car control practice, but Sunday was pretty nice and we were able to get in a brace of dry fun-n-fast runs.

Pics!

Mother Nature wasn't sure if she wanted to downpour or dry out, so we got both!

The MINI was made for this track!

My buddy Roger in his MINI was there lapping smartly; he really knows the circuit ;nod

This Lincoln LS gave a few chuckles, but the driver was hustling it around the track quite well actually!

This Porsche 911 Turbo sounded like a smooth bass guitar. On every upshift it belched big fireballs out its exhaust. It took many tries to capture it perfectly:

GLLC host Chris was there in his new-for-him Spec Miata

On Saturday there were LOTS of spins and offs, so this flag was popular:

Cheers,
Ryan

P.S. you should've been there! Plan on doing it next year, seriously.

 

[Confidential]

Ok, definitely doing it next year! Great pics!

 

[riksche]

Great pics Ryan - thanks for posting! Even with the weather, it was a great two days. Special thanks to the AutoEurope guys (and gals) for the great food both days and their unflagging support for this event!

 

[chrisp993]

Hope everyone had as great day as I did - great company, cars and track! Big thanks to Auto Europe for doing such a great job of feeding us all.

Thanks also to Kathryn Rapier - Lotus Club's official photographer :bow:

We have photos of the event available at: GLLC @ Grattan and highlights at: Grattan Highlights

Check it out - Kathryn's work is just amazing – the rain made for some very dramatic photos and also some dramatic driving but that’s another story.

Kathryn has worked to organize the photos by car marque, owner and color so it should be easy to find YOUR action shots Prints of the shots, or even mugs, mousemats etc. can all be purchased from directly from the Smugmug link above, but if you wanted something more, or special, Kathryn wanted to pass along the following message:

Most photos are in "raw" format as they came from the camera – they could benefit from some minor enhancing and cropping. Please contact me if you would like to have image enhancements; in some cases I am able to remove some of the glare on the windshields or lighten shadows in the car. We can also go into a more artistic direction by adding photo effects and filters.

If you are interested in several pictures, I can combine them and put them onto a CD for you, this is more cost effective then purchasing them individually. Pricing for the CD will vary depending on the amount of images and enhancements. Feel free to email me with any questions you may have, and also if you have any suggestions or comments. Please note that these images are for personal use. If used for commercial or publication, permission must be given along with photo credit.

Also, since I have photographs of many past events, let me know if you would like me to look through my archives; I'll see what I have available.

Thanks, and as always it was a lot of fun!
Cheers!
Kathryn
[email protected]