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 provide a platform for Lotus owners to move into motorsport carrying the Lotus on Track principles to the starting grid.
LoTRDC (Lotus on Track Racing Drivers Club) was launched at the end of 2006 in conjunction with MSVR – the racing club division of Motor Sport Vision – owners of Brands Hatch and five other major circuits. LoTRDC is a non-profit club registered with the UK’s National Motorsport authority; Motorsport UK. The club aims to provide drivers with a safe, friendly and sociable environment for Lotus enthusiasts to compete in.
Until 2007 there were only a handful of Lotus cars racing on the same grid. The Lotus on Track Elise Trophy was launched at Brands Hatch in March 2007 and changed that with full grids, huge support from the Lotus community & Group Lotus and plenty of action at circuits across the UK and into Europe.
In 2008 Group Lotus asked LoTRDC to take over the organisation of Lotus Cup Europe, the World’s only race series owned by Group Lotus. By the end of the 2010 season, just 2 years into its partnership LoTRDC has more than trebled the number of cars competing whilst the series had visited Europe’s premier circuits.
In 2011 LoTRDC launched a new championship: Lotus Cup UK. The championship was aimed at those who wanted to take their Lotus racing more seriously. Races incorporated all current Lotus models with the Exige V6, Evora GT4, 2 Eleven and of course Elises & Exiges. Races moved to an endurance format and ran for up to 2 hours involving pit stops, driver changes and refuelling. The championship proved so popular it was granted two separate championships, one for SuperSport and one for Production cars.
In 2013 after a number of years of LoTRDC members competing in entry level motorsport via sprinting the club formed the Lotus Cup UK Speed Championship. Sprinting is a high-speed discipline in which drivers take turns to set a time around a lap of a race circuit or a set course, with the fastest times determining the results. Cars start singly and are timed by electronic equipment accurate to 100th of a second. Sprints are typically held on racing circuits and disused airfields, with venues spread right across the country. LoTRDC continues to run the championship today, bringing Lotus owners into motorsport for the first time.
Lotus Cup Europe was granted FIA International Series status in 2014, with safety and technical regulations governed by the FIA. In addition to enjoying similar status to prestigious series such as DTM & GT World Challenge. With this change and the addition work that was created to run an FIA authorised championship the LoTRDC team of volunteers decided they could no longer run Lotus Cup UK & Elise Trophy so with full grids in both championships and at their height of popularity the two UK championships had new commercial ownership from 2015.
The race series is designed to offer Lotus owners the opportunity to experience some of the best race circuits in Europe with like-minded enthusiasts. The Lotus Cup Europe calendar features the continent’s finest circuits, with three of 2022’s rounds supporting the prestigious DTM championship at Imola, Nürburgring & Spa Francorchamps. The season commences at Paul Ricard as part of the Grand Prix Camions. It then moves on to Germany and the Hockenheim Historic – Jim Clark Revival. Between DTM rounds there is a 50 minute race and second visit to Spa while the championship concludes at the 24 Heures Camions event at Le Mans in front of 60,000 spectators.
