Dear members,

It’s so nice being out and about again. Since the lockdowns have ended and all the restrictions have slowly lifted, we’ve returned to our busy schedule of running all the events you love to come to, and we love to run for you.

6 November saw our first face to meeting for what seemed like years, returning to the Naked Racer in Cheltenham. This was very strongly attended, and we had a fantastic night with lots of old and new members coming along to see everyone and grab a very nice dinner, also take in the amazing collection John has accumulated there.

Due to covid and rescheduled dates, we had a clash of events on 21 November with our Go Karting event and our final round of the Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship for the year clashing.

The Stony Creek Karting event started with a drive through some amazing roads to end up at Stony Creek Karting where approximately 20 members enjoyed some fun on the go karts.

At our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship final round at Phillip Island we had over 20 members enjoying the track and some getting some on-track training from me, as I lead a group of E30 race cars out on the track, to show some of our new E30 racers their race lines. They all loved this and all achieved PBs while doing this.  Weather was amazing too, so everyone went home extremely happy. Thank you again for AROCA for putting on these great events and inviting us to join them again this year.

25 November was our third regional Drop in Donuts at Geelong, these nights are growing in popularity, and it looks like this will be a regular occurrence going into 2022.

On 27 November we had our monthly hook up with BCCM, again attended well and some great information from Munich about new and exciting things to come in 2022. It's just a pity it was on at 4am here. The good news is that the next one is a much more respectable 8pm - watch your emails for the event notice and log in and say hello to our friends from Munich.

On 28 November we held our Annual Christmas Show and Shine Picnic at Cruden Farm. What can I say? The weather was amazing, gentle breeze with beautiful blue skies. A perfect day to bring out the family and your pride and joy for a wonderful day in the sun. Jo has excelled herself again, finding us the perfect location and organising another amazing event to cap off another very successful year for the club.

We arrived to set up at 7.45am and were soon followed by a steady stream of cars which just seemed to grow and grow, which was amazing. We had all sorts of beautiful cars, a large range of BMW, Mercedes Benz, VW, Holdens, Ford, Mazda, Austin Healey, Porsches, Minis, Datsun, so many beautiful cars, I am sure there were more brands, the display went on and on it looked amazing. I’m guessing at 100 cars plus and over 180 attendees.

If you have never been to Cruden Farm I suggest you pay it a visit, such a beautiful estate with beautiful gardens to stroll through.

We raised $920 from our raffle which will go to the Smith Family and $203.50 in donations from our breakfast BBQ egg and bacon rolls, which will go to the Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal. Thank you to Matt Kenny from All commercial/All Residential Real Estate for kindly bringing his lovely BBQ trailer and his band of merry men and women who cooked away like professionals all morning. Thanks also to Phil Kolar for donating the eggs and the wonderful people at Bell Motorsport who donated the bacon and rolls etc to feed the hungry hoards.

We were very lucky to have Santa attend as well, who gave out lolly bags to all the children, big and small. Thank you also to Paul Holliday for taking some photos, which I am sure you will have seen on or social channels by now.

The day was just perfect. Weather, lots of cars, lots of people and an amazing place to hold it. This will become our Christmas picnic location from now on. I must say a huge thank you to everyone that helped on the day too, Jo, of course, for everything you do, planning and organising, then running around all day like an energiser bunny. Shaaron and Lawrence, with set up, staging the cars on display, selling raffle tickets, judging cars, then packing up at the end. Paul and Jo Holliday for all your help setting up, photos, selling raffle tickets and everything else you do. Tim Oh, for all your help setting up and then packing up, directing cars and judging, Steve, Andrew, Mark, your help in judging the cars and everyone else I have missed, thank you. Our events like this are so fantastic because so many pitch in and help out and makes our job so much easier and even more enjoyable.

We really appreciate the help packing up at events like this and makes it a lot easier for us when we get home. In fact, this time, as soon as Jo and I got back we unpacked the club trailer and put it away, hooked up our caravan and loaded up ready to head to Bathurst at 5am the next morning, as we are both Officiating at the Bathurst 1000 over the next 6 days. It will be a huge event and it makes it so much easier when everyone pitches in to help us pack up, so thanks again.

Something you may have seen in the photos or on site if you were there, is our new club trailer. This will be officially launched at the German Auto Show we are hosting in January, but those on site got a glimpse of what we have been working on over the last few months. It is a great asset for the club and makes it so much easier to bring all the club gear to any of our events and provide a base for everyone in the club to work from at events. By the time you see it again it will finished being customised to suit our needs and it will be wrapped and look amazing, you won’t be able to miss it!

10 December brings us our last official event for 2022, which is a Twilight drive, leaving from Jay Leno Garage Products in Airport West. We will be meeting there at 5pm for a sausage sizzle then heading off at 6pm sharp for a lovely drive to Werribee South.

On 12 December Jay Leno Garage Products have invited our members, as well our other clubs, to a cars and coffee event, so this will be an unofficial BMW Drivers Club Melbourne event, but we encourage you all to attend as it should be a great day.

A bit of a reminder too, your very hard-working committee will be taking a short break over Christmas. So, if you have club permit paperwork that needs to be signed or new cars to be added to our register, please don’t leave it until Christmas Eve and expect we will be available to help you out. As much as we do love you all and bend over backward to help all our members, even we need a couple of weeks off over the Christmas/New Year period to enjoy some down time. So, think ahead, plan ahead and get in early.

Looking forward to 2022, our first event will be Round 1 of our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship for 2022, at Phillip Is Grand Prix Circuit on 16 January. It's fantastic to have Traction Tyres/Yokohama back on board, sponsoring our Drivers Championship again in 2022. Thank you very much for your ongoing support of our club Andrew Mc Cathie, make sure you talk to Traction if you need track or road tyres and mention you are a member to obtain your discount.

The 2022 Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship will again run over the four tracks in Victoria as well as a Hillclimb at Morwell. We have also booked four Driver Training/Come and Try Days at Sandown and Broadford spread over the year, so if you want to get out on the track, gain some instruction and have a load of fun, check out the Motorsport and Driver Training calendar for 2022.

On 26 January we have our Australia Day drive to Marysville, which we will be giving away prizes for the best dress Australiana car and member.

On 28 January is our German Auto Show, which is shaping up to be huge this year with trade stalls, lots of food vendors and of course everything German on display.  If you are wanting to display your German vehicle, be it Motor Bike, Car, Truck, Bus or Army Vehicle, I would suggest you pre-register to make your entry as smooth as possible on the day. We are expecting large crowds. All proceeds will be going to our Charity for this event Beyond Blue.  We will be at Sandown on Red Hill, so lot of room to spread out and make your display areas look amazing.

Finally, there is, of course, the BMW Clubs Australia Nationals being held in Canberra in March,over the Labour Day long weekend. It will be an amazing event with lots of very interesting things to do for all ages. Check out the website which is now open for registrations. If you have never been to a Nationals Event, you should come along and check it out. It is a great weekend away, we will do a group trip up to Canberra and it is a great weekend meeting and catching up with all our BMW Club friends from all over the country.

Again, it is so great being out and about and pretty much back to normal. Thank you all for coming to our events again and making all the hard work worthwhile.

If we don’t get to see you at our last events for the year, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing you in 2022. Thanks again to everyone that has joined our little club and comes and helps us make this club so fantastic, whether it be helping with running the club, or just coming to events and sharing our passion for what we love. We really appreciate you being a part of our BMW family.

Take care, stay safe, have a great Christmas and see you next year.

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