Dear members,

Hopefully this was our last month in lockdown and I for one, have been going a little stir-crazy waiting to get out and socialise again.

We started the month, for our regional members at least, with a “Drop in at Daniels Donuts” night, in Geelong, which was well received and all who attended had a nice catch up and some nice Donuts too, by all accounts.

We did try to re-visit our Warrnambool getaway in October but unfortunately that had to be cancelled for the third time.  Don’t worry, we will get there next year in whale season and hopefully we can finally get out to see those whales.

Our October members meeting was via Zoom and was very interesting learning about how to become an official and further your training.  We were very lucky to have several representatives from different disciplines of motorsport officiating, which was very informative. Thank you to all who logged on, it was a great night. 

We finally got the green light to be able to socialise within our metro or country areas with some restrictions, so we arranged to have a metro drive down to the Mornington Peninsula and a regional drive down the Great Ocean Road.  Both drives were brilliant and it was fantastic to see so many attending and having so many new members there too.  Welcome to you all and thank you for coming along. We really enjoyed the Peninsula drive, it started out a little wet, but soon cleared up to a beautiful sunny day for a picnic. We had two groups leave Hastings with over 30 cars - it was a sight to see, so many were eager to get their beautiful cars out for a run.

We then held a members only virtual event with Steve and Clay Richards.  It was great to chat with both Steve and Clay.  Darryl O’Neill also won the model M6 GT3.  It is always a pleasure to be in the company of the Richards family and this night was no exception.  Steve will be racing at Bathurst this year in the Toyota 86 Gazoo Series against Clay, so be sure to watch and cheer for both Steve and Clay, who will be hoping to beat his dad.

Our last event for October was session 3 of the BCCM live from Munich nights, or should I say early morning at 3am our time.  It was great to see so many of our members getting up in the middle of the night and attending.

Looking ahead, November is a jam-packed month starting with our members meeting at the Naked Racer in Cheltenham, on 9 November.  This is where we had our launch night, it's such a great venue to check out all the memorabilia, have a chat and something to eat and drink.  Now that restrictions have ended and we are reunited with our country friends and family, we can start doing some more normal events again.

On 21 November, we have 2 events. Unfortunately,with the length of lockdown some events were cancelled and others postponed or shuffled around.  Getting a track booking was hard so we have the final round of our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship at Phillip Island and a social drive and karting event at Stony Creek both on the same day.

28 November will be our Annual Show and Shine - Christmas Picnic at Cruden Farm.  We have the venue booked exclusively for us so this is going to be a great event. The gardens are amazing, so come along and have a picnic or pre-order your lunch. There is a rumour Santa may even pop in for a quick check on all the little and big kids to make sure they are all behaving, so if you have your Christmas list be sure to bring it on the day.  There will be open class judging again for the show and shine so we encourage all member BMW and non-BMW owners to bring your cars out for what looks to be a great day.  Bring the family for a fun picnic and let make this a huge day. If you don’t want to bring your own picnic lunch, we have arranged for grazing boxes to be pre-ordered and delivered on the day to make life easier for all.   We will have photos with Santa, gold coin donation going to the Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal. 

Looking further ahead, German Auto Show, which was supposed to be held in August has be re-booked for 30 January.  Be sure to register, we are hoping this is going to be one to remember. 

11-14 March is the Clubs Australia Nationals hosted by BMW Car Club Canberra and this is really shaping up to be a great event.  We always enjoy getting together with the other clubs around Australia.  If you haven't ever attended a Nationals event, we highly recommend you do.

Jo and I have spent several hours planning for 2022.  It is really shaping up to be a huge year with so much to see and do.  Make sure you watch out for event notices coming your way real soon.  The year’s events will start early to take advantage of all the good weather, with some weekends away, social drives, car displays, sprint days and lots more.

We had a great response to pre-ordering UHF radios, mics and antennas at our first drive out of lockdown.  If you want to be ready for the next drive, go on the online store and pre-order your radios, mics and antennas. It makes it so much easier on a drive if we can communicate with you and you can hear where we are going, as well as interesting information as we are driving along too.

I must say thank you to all the members that responded favourably to my last email about events and vaccinations.  There are some that don’t want to get vaccinated and that is their choice, but as event organisers we have to run events under the conditions imposed on us.  Whether that be by the venues we attend or by the laws in place from the Government.  This is something we have no control of and we hope you all understand that we are governed by the rules of the venues we attend. I do not want to hear or see anyone abusing our committee members, venue staff, or anyone for that matter. It is the world we now live in and we are doing the best we can to run events for everyone. If you choose to come to an event and cannot get in because you are unvaccinated, we will take a no tolerance approach to any violence or aggression towards any other members or volunteers.  With the ever-changing road map, please ensure you read the event notices to the bottom, to make sure you receive all the necessary information.  Also, our final reminders quite often have important information regarding the event, such as your drive instructions, so don’t just file it away, read it please.

Our membership is still growing, we are very proud of the way our club is developing into a very friendly, welcoming place for all who come along. Again, welcome to all the new members who have joined us over the last few months, and I very much look forward to meeting you at an event soon.

Finally, I would like to say a huge congratulations to my daughter (and our Editor) Jess, who has just finished her final exams and is now a Law Graduate.  We are all so very proud of you Jess and know how hard you have worked to achieve this.  Thank you again for all the behind-the-scenes stuff you do to make our club look so good.

Take care everyone, enjoy getting out and about again and seeing your friends and family and I look forward to seeing you soon.

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