By Bob McKay
Each October a special event takes place on the lawn of the Breakers Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. The Audrain Newport Concours & Motor Week has become a premier East Coast motoring event, and my Lotus Eleven Le Mans racer, a Lotus Team car that competed in the legendary 1957 Mille Miglia, was invited to the October 2024 Concours.
Three days before, we had loaded my green racer into a borrowed enclosed trailer and then the next morning my wife Jean and I drove to Newport from our home in Boothbay Harbor. The staging area in Newport was a huge parking lot about two miles from the Breakers. At 6:00 the following morning, my son Rob met me there. It was still dark with just a hint of the dawn to come. We looked at each other and said, “Let’s fire it up and head to the Breakers.” I think we hit every red light along the route. Being a race car, the Lotus is not meant to stop and go easily. We had to pop the clutch twice to re-start it, so we decided to ignore the red lights.
The loud exhaust alerted everyone at the huge iron gates of the Breakers that we were approaching. We were greeted by the orange glow of the rising sun and a number of staffers dressed in yellow jackets and hats. They escorted us to our assigned place on the expansive lawn that overlooks Narragansett Bay. To my surprise, we were positioned in the very first row of cars and centered on the steps of the beautiful mansion.
All the cars were in position by 8:30 and we were told to stand by because the judges would begin their inspections. Four judges from Sotheby’s Vintage Car group—armed with clipboards, asking questions, poking around the car and taking notes—surrounded us. There were 60 judges in total, all experts in their fields, to examine more than 170 cars.
At 10:30, it was announced that the judges were finished and that the awards were to be presented. An official approached me with a card that indicated the Lotus had won an award and asked me to stand by. I can’t describe my feelings other than WOW!
The awards in each class were given out in reverse order—third place, second and then first. The presentations started with the classes in the back of the field and worked their way to the front row, where I was. Each winning car drove through the crowd of spectators to get to the reviewing stand where all the dignitaries and trophies were waiting. It took about 45 minutes before it was our time to learn which cars in our group would receive awards. An official approached the car alongside me and said, ”Start your car.” That must be third place? He then walked past me and stopped four cars farther down the line. Second place? Then he came back in my direction and asked the driver next to me on the other side to start his engine, so that evidently was first place. Then he moved on to last group of cars, leaving me wondering what had happened. Was there a mistake when I was told that I had won an award?
Finally, when the final group of cars had been recognized, an official came to me and said, “Start your car and drive to the reviewing platform.” With a loud blast of the exhaust and a cloud of smoke, I drove through the crowd to the reviewing stand. After the president of the Audrain Concours gave a talk about preserving historic vehicles, a very dignified gentleman presented me a very special trophy: The Simeone Award For Historic Presence. It’s a beautiful bronze sculpture of an early race car, with driver and mechanic aboard, speeding through a turn with dirt and gravel kicking up.
Our drive back through the crowds and the streets of Newport was uneventful except for the big grin on my face and the trophy held tightly in my son Rob’s hands. It was a beautiful and rewarding day!
This Lotus Eleven, Chassis No. 308, has a great history as a team car for the Lotus works. It competed in the grueling 1,000-mile race in Italy known as the Mille Miglia and then went on to race in a number of Grand Prix with drivers Colin Chapman, Cliff Alison and Innes Ireland. The Lotus then came to the US to race for the Madison Avenue Sports Car Driving & Chowder Society, also known as Lotus Team USA. There is no record of the car being raced after 1962, since no alterations were made to meet the SCCA’s new safety requirements. Chassis No. 308 is in remarkable original condition. I acquired it in 1977 and have made minor safety additions so that I could race it in Vintage Sports Car Club of America events. I take special pride in keeping the car as original as when it was part of Team Lotus in 1957.
Bob McKay is a member of the MMSCC Board of Directors. He and Jean, his wife, host an annual club picnic at their home on Boothbay Harbor, where the storied Lotus is always a prime attraction.
