Dear Members,
Hi and welcome back again for another report just out of lockdown.
Sadly, we are getting used to these snap lockdowns and they are playing havoc with our social and motorsport schedules.
July started with our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship Round 6 at Philip Island, and we had a fabulous turnout considering we had every season in one on the day as well. Thank you to all who attended, as it was a wild and woolly day, with breaks of sunshine interspersed with arctic winds and rain but everyone stuck it out and still had a lot of fun.
6 July was our members meeting at Waverley BMW with the BMW 540d touring Highway Patrol car on display for our members to get up close and personal with. We had some items for sale and raffle care of the Blue-Ribbon Foundation and by the end of the night the tin was full. We raised over $300 on the night so thank you all to our very generous members who helped support another worthy charity. The presentation by Sergeant Mark was very interesting and informative. You cannot hide from them these days, they can see you and know who you are long before you can see them.
Then the incursion from north of the Border brought us to a screeching halt and dropped us into a 5-day circuit breaker lockdown, which ended up being 2 weeks. I guess we should be thankful that we are so used to following the lockdown rules and it did end up being a short stop, as we see our NSW friends aren't having the same luck. I feel for them, we did it last year for months on end and I'm sure none of us would want to go through that again.
Christmas in July had to be postponed again, which was a shame but we do say postponed, not cancelled. We will try to do this event later in the year. Christmas in August or September possibly - watch out for event notices. Once we see what happens over the next few weeks we will try and squeeze it in somewhere.
We wrapped up July with our Broadford Come and Try/Driver Training Day, which was supposed to be earlier in the month, but was moved due to lockdown. Luckily we managed to secure 31 July. We had good registration numbers, and it was a fun day as always. Similarly, our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship Round 7, that was to be on 18 July following our Come and Try Day, was pushed back two weeks as well and will be happening on 1 August.
August is pretty well booked out and will be a very exciting month, with lots to keep us all busy and give you plenty of events to choose from, if you’d like to come and join us at one or more of them.
On 7 August we have Winton Festival of Speed display (pending COVID rules allowing spectators). Keep an eye on event notice emails if you want to come to this, as we know, things can change pretty quickly. This is a prime example of why you should register your interest in events so that if we need to change things, we know you are planning on coming and we can let you know.
8 August is a one-day Race Meeting at Phillip Island for Round 5 of the E30 Racing Championship. Quite a few of our members will be down at the Island racing with the E30 Racing club and looks like a bumper field of entries for the one-day meeting. It was to be a normal two-day race meeting but due to restrictions in place at the moment the organisers decided to shorten it to one day, with the same number of races. It will be a very busy day for us!
On 10 August we have our August members meeting via Zoom. This will be a nice catch up meeting for a chat on Zoom. We always try to get out and about for our meetings where we can but we thought it might be nice to do another zoom meeting to enable those that can’t get to physical meeting to attend and catch up with everyone too.
On 15 August we have Coffee & Cars at Beaumaris (take two!). This was bumped back during Lockdown V4, looking forward to catching up with Christopher and sampling some of his delicious cakes!
On 21 August we have Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship Round 8 back at Phillip Island again, entries opened last Friday, so get in quick, it always fills up very quickly!
On 22 August we have Maling Road Car Show, with very limited spots to display. If you want to display in Maling Road send in your expression of interest as soon as possible.
We'll finish August with German Auto Show on 29 August. This is going to be HUGE! If you have a German car, bike, truck, plane, tank, race car, what-ever, bring it along and show the world. We will have trade stands, food and drink vendors, Shannons will be there, you name, it will be there. We are even trying to organise some WW2 planes to do a fly-over. The German Auto Show has outgrown the space at St Kilda Road and we are running it this year for the VW Club so come along and help make it a fantastic day. All proceeds on the day go to Beyond Blue and thanks must go to Shannons for helping cover the cost of the day so that everything we make on the day will go to the very worth charity.
If you are unable to attend but still want to donate, please use this link.
Other events to look out for:
-
-
-
-
26 October - Tassie tour. Looking forward to getting down to Tassie for a burn around the Island, it’s been too long, and if you have never been down there, you should com along. It is very beautiful, and the roads are amazing fun. There are a lot of people coming already, so it will be a fun week with a fantastic bunch of people, as always.
As you can see above there is a lot to look forward to and we hope to see you all at one or more of them over the next few months.
Coffee & cars will be at one of our club members’ cafe, so be sure to pop in and say hi to Chris and we will have vouchers for discount coffee and yummies.
Our Tassie trip is filling up quickly so if you want to join us on this please register as soon as possible.
We have some great new items in the online store, such as our new full size umbrellas and UHF radios with accessories to go with them too. We thought it would make life easer for our members if we had the radio of choice in our store for you to order and pick up on the morning of the drive, or earlier if you wish. Check out our store for other great items too.
Our welfare team is up a ready to help anyone who might need help. We would like to thank Shannon Cooper and family for supporting our team and enabling them to be able to offer as much support as we can moving forward. If you need someone to talk to or a shoulder to lean on, talk to one of our welfare team, they are available for anything you need help with.
We would like to thank Makulu Storage for supporting our Come and Try days this year and sponsoring one driver each round. Nella Santisi was awarded the prize for our Sandown Come and Try day and Daniel Laurie won the prize for today's Broadford Come and Try day. Well done both Nella and Daniel.
Membership is still growing, currently we have 624 members and we are so happy to see new faces out at our events each month, as well as the regulars. It is fantastic to see the Club healthy and growing.
You may have heard that our wonderful Vice President/Event Organiser/Energiser Bunny, Jo has been laid up lately. Jo had her second hip replacement two weeks ago and is slowly on the mend now. It won’t be long and she will be back on her feet running and around again. We wish you all the best Jo, we all look forward to your recovery.
I look forward to seeing you at an event soon and, as always, drive careful out there and take care.
Graeme Bell | President
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc.
P.O. Box 81, TYABB VIC 3913
Incorporated in Victoria #A0102695G
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc is a member of: BMW Clubs Australia and the BMW Clubs International Council
Motorsport Australia Affiliated Motorsport Club
