Welcome to the Lotus on Track Elise Trophy.
Lotus on Track is Europe’s largest track day club and prides itself on providing friendly, safe and good-value track days. The Lotus on Track Racing Drivers’ Club was formed to create a race series for Lotus Elise owners, and aims to carry Lotus on Track principles to the starting grid.
The Elise Trophy was launched in 2007 in conjunction with MSVR – the racing club division of Motor Sport Vision – owners of Brands Hatch and four other major circuits. The Elise Trophy provides a safe, friendly and financially viable series for those wishing to progress from track days into racing. The series is open to like-minded owners and see’s a normal race weekend involve 20 minutes of qualifying, plus two races of at least 20 minutes each. Until 2007 there were only a handful of Elises racing on the same grid. The Elise Trophy has changed that with full grids, huge support from the Lotus community and plenty of action at circuits across the UK and into Europe.
During its first season the Elise Trophy became the fastest growing race series in Europe as well as the best supported club series thanks to the large number of Lotus Enthusiasts that follow it. Its not just the number of cars or the fantastic support the series receives that makes the Elise Trophy the premier UK race series, the race calendar is the best in UK club motorsport: with races at all the major UK circuits such as Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Donington Park. There are also events at the best of European circuits, with visits to date to Spa Francorchamps, Hockenheim, Imola, Le Mans and others.
The series was the first ever to fill a full grid of 32 starters at the legendary Brands Hatch circuit in its inaugural meeting. In fact, the Elise Trophy proved so popular that by the final round of its first season a second grid had to be added and no fewer than 50 Elise race cars lined up, with the Production class cars being given their own grid.
In addition to launching its own headline event:- “Lotus Celebration”, the Elise Trophy took the honour of supporting DTM in its first season and has since supported the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Formula Two and the World Touring Cars Championship on a number of occasions.
In less than 3 years the Elise Trophy has seen over 80 drivers take to the grid for the first time. More new drivers have started out racing in the Elise Trophy than any other independent series in Europe over those 3 years.
It’s not just the Lotus Community who recommend the Elise Trophy. We’ve had some famous guests race with us with World Land Speed record holder, Wing Commander Andy Green OBE taking part in his first ever circuit races with us at Snetterton in June. This was followed by ex-250CC Motorbike World Champion and Moto GP runner-up, Marco Melandri, joining us at Imola before BBC1’s Formula 1 presenter Jake Humphrey raced for the very first time as part of an MSA Go Motorsport initiative to bring more people into the sport. Jake’s adventure was filmed by the BBC and is being broadcast on BBC1 alongside its Formula 1 coverage.
In October 2008 Lotus Cars announced that LoTRDC would take over the organisation of Lotus Cup Europe, the factory owned and supported series for Lotus drivers.
Why a new series?
A number of Lotus on Track members had expressed an interest in taking the next step on from trackdays and going racing. It was, however, important to keep the same core values that form the ethos behind the track day club, i.e. safety, sociability and value for money.
Until the Elise Trophy launched at Brands Hatch in March 2007 there were just a handful of Lotus owners racing their Elises in the UK. By delivering a series that caters for enthusiasts, (and not just the privileged few who have full team support and a car they just use for racing) we are able to make racing an Elise a viable option to the huge track day community. The series launched with a full grid of 32 cars at Brands, a remarkable first for any new series. During the first season over 60 different drivers took part, culminating with a double grid of 57 Elises at the final 2007 round. Not only have we filled grids where previous series could only muster 4 or 5 Elises we have also captured the imagination of the whole Lotus community with large numbers attending each round during 2007, 2008 & 2009 to watch some great racing as well as have a great Lotus day out.
How to register
The series is open by invitation to Lotus Elise S1, Lotus Elise S2 and Exige S2 NA owners. It is advisable that any potential driver comes to a round to meet other drivers as well as the team of volunteers who run the series. If still interested check that you and your car can be accommodated. Its then worth registering for the clubs forums where drivers are more than happy to give advice and honest feedback. An application form can be found in the Entry & Regs section of this website. Membership of LoTRDC is a one off £150. There will is an additional registration fee of £250 for the 2010 season.
Where does the membership fee go?
The membership fee and all series sponsorship money is ploughed back into the series – the committee are all volunteers and receive no payments for their work.
I’m new to Lotus can I still take part?
There’s no reason why not if you are looking for a race series with our ethos – full details on how you can take part can be found on the application form.
What cars will be allowed?
The series is open to Lotus Elise S1, Lotus Elise S2 and Exige S2 NA. Other Lotus variants are welcome in the LoTRDC run Lotus Cup Europe series that has events in the UK and on main land Europe.
During 2007 the Elise Trophy was open to a limited number of VX220s on a trial basis but that was not been carried forward to subsequent years. 2 Elevens, Exige SC, 340R and modified Elise and Exiges were also included in the opening three years but a decision was taken in September 2009 to remove the classes that catered for these cars for the 2010 season. The majority of these cars are welcome in Lotus Cup Europe.
We don’t promote arrive and drive but do realise some of you may want to share a car with a friend and will look at each case on an individual basis. Full details of which type of cars are allowed and which class they fall into can be found in the series regs. If in doubt please just ask on the drivers’ Q&A forum.
What level of preparation is required?
There is a brief preparation guide on this website, we recommend potential drivers contact one of the series sponsors for further information and guidance. It goes without saying that all cars must meet the minimum requirements as specified in the MSA blue book where not specified to a higher level in the series regs.
What type of races will there be in 2010?
We will have two standard scratch races at most meetings with the second race having a reversed grid of the front ten places At some rounds we will run an additional grid to allow more cars to race, when this happens there will be four races.
Who will be racing?
We have a mixture of novice and experienced drivers. In 2007 over half the drivers who competed were new to racing and one of our main priorities is to keep attracting new drivers to motorsport. Although we then had a handful of extremely experienced drivers including one ex-F1 driver we also had a large number of drivers who had a year’s previous experience, mainly from the Production BMW series which was set up by the same group of Lotus owners who were involved in setting up the Elise Trophy. We do welcome all experience levels and will provide as much assistance and advice as possible to novice drivers.
Racing in mainland Europe?
If you’re based outside the UK and don’t want to make the journey over to the UK, or if you’re in the UK and fancy racing at some major European circuits why not have a look at Lotus Cup Europe
