Australian production car series championship winners
“Lotus has always had an involvement in motorsport over its 70 year history, with numerous class and championship victories with some of the best drivers of all time getting behind the wheel.
While we considered various other racing categories we felt the Australian Production Car Series made a strong fit for us.
What you’ll see us compete with is essentially what any car enthusiast can purchase with the Lotus Exige for sale in Australia for under $150,000.
We actively encourage a lifestyle of social, rally, track or competitive driving and our cars are probably the most cost effective sports cars to use vs other marques.
In an age where headlines are dominated with electric cars, self-driving vehicles and heavy, technology laden cars we know from our customers they want a purer driving experience. We want to showcase that, and we know we’ll be competitivewith relatively low running costs.”
“We are really excited by this project. Great momentum from 2017 with 100% growth for the brand, two great drivers, a great category that’s relevant to our cars &it’s all accessible for other people to try via the events we run, we were at Mount Panorama in February for an exclusive track day for example.
To see the Simply Sports Cars built Lotus Exige sports cars do so well is a testament to the team's experience and motorsport pedigree.
We are regularly getting new owners to the brand once they realise the cost of running some of the other marques on track, a Lotus provides bang for buck, pure driving and great reliability”
Jim Pollicina and Ryan Simpson won the closely contested 2018 Australian Production Car series in their Lotus Exige Sport 350. The championship decided came down to the final round with a battle between the Exige sports cars of Grant Denyer & Tony D’Alberto.
Simply Sports Cars built each of the Lotus Exige sports cars that contested this motorsport championship. The Simply Sports Cars dealerships also provided track side and engineering support to each of the teams competing. The series had five rounds spread across different endurance formats at race tracks in Australia
- Round One – Sandown Raceway – May 11-13 – Four x One-Hour Races
- Round Two – Queensland Raceway – July 27-29 – Two x 300km Raceway (including the Fight in the Night)
- Round Three – Winton Motor Raceway – August 31 – September 2 – Two x Two-Hour Races
- Round Four – Sydney Motorsport Park – September 21-23 – One x Four-Hour Race
- Round Five – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit – November 2-4 – One x Six-Hour Race
“We are thrilled at the opportunity to prepare and run these cars. The series is a really great fit for the Lotus Exige and it allows us to compete with similar-priced cars anyone can buy in the market, we are very excited to see how the season unfolds.
“The APC has a lot to offer brands that have cars costing less than $150K. Therelative low costs and endurance race formats offer great value for the drivers/owners whilst also offering a stage for manufacturers to showcase what their cars are capable of in some pretty tough environments against tough competition.
We couldn’t have done it without the combined support of Lotus Cars Australia, Just Cuts, Timken and VM Waste”
In 2018 Lotus Exige Sport 350’s were eligible to compete in the Australian Production Car Series and had three teams entered with an entry list that included more than one hundred drivers in the year. The Simply Sports Cars built Lotus Exige won the series at the first attempt.
Jim / Ryan Lotus Exige – 431 points
Grant / Iain BMW M4 – 414 points
Tony / Grant Lotus Exige – 394 points
Dimitri / Lachlan Subaru WRX – 229 points
Kyle / Tony Lotus Exige – 189 points
