Dear Members,

Welcome to 2019! It's a new year and we have been busy organising a fantastic year ahead with lots of things coming up to suit everyone’s taste.

We ended 2018 just shy of 300 members but even over the holiday break we welcomed some new members, which pushed us over 300 and on toward our next goal.  Personally, I am very humbled that so many have joined us and continually tell us we are doing a great job - exactly what we aim to do, to build the best club for you, our friends and members.

January kicked off with our first event for the year, the Eastlink Great Australia Rally, culminating in a car show at Cruden Farm in Langwarrin. You can read the story about it elsewhere on the blog, but I would like to say, what an event!  Perfect weather, beautiful location and well over 800 cars on show.  Amazing!  Make sure you come along to that one next year, so many cars of all kinds to see and so many people looking and chatting.  It was a fantastic day out and great to have so many of our members bring their cars along to show off.  This was one where we invited members to bring what ever car they wanted, so we had members with not only BMW’s but some other very interesting cars as well.  Just shows the diversity of our club and how inclusive we are no matter what car you own. We are of course passionate about our BMW’s, but sometimes even the most ardent fan has some very interesting other makes hidden away in our collections.  Like us, we have a number of old British classics that we love too.

We have a few big announcements to make too!  I’d like to welcome two official sponsors of our club and hope to announce another one or two very soon!  We'd like to welcome Shannons Insurance and Traction Tyres/Yokohama.  Traction Tyres/Yokohama are the naming rights sponsor of our 2019 Drivers' Championship.  We thank you for your support and look forward to a long relationship with you both, in 2019 and in the years to come.

Please, if you have any questions or interest in either insurance, call Shannons, or tyres and suspension for road or track, call Traction Tyres.  Both are here to support your club, so please give them a call and support them back with your custom.

We have a very busy and exciting year coming up this year, starting straight away!  Quite a few of us are off to Bathurst to support the BMWs running in the 12 Hour this weekend.  Sadly, our friend and fellow member, Steve Richards, isn’t running this year. 

We then have lots of other events coming in quick succession - I think the next weekend we have off is months away.  Make sure you keep an eye on your emails and the events page on the website. 

We have drives and displays coming up at some iconic locations like the Torquay Car Show, RACV Rally at Yarra Valley, Phillip Island Historics and the big one, the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. 

We are also organising a long weekend away with the MINI Club on Queens Birthday weekend, make sure you save that date.  We will be heading off to tour the iconic Silo Art Trail, as well as some other very interesting sights and detours through Western Victoria.

The 2019 Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers' Championship will kick off at Sandown on 15 February.  Get your entries in with the Alfa Club if you haven’t entered yet, as they are hosting us for Round 1.  Round 2 will be a Hillclimb at Bryant Park in Moe.  This will be the first motorsport event we've run on our own.   We need you to support us at track days, so come and have some fun, even if you have never been to a track event before, I promise you will have fun!

We will also be running driver training groups at most of our events as well, so you can have an experienced instructor in your car with you.  You only have to go as fast as you are comfortable at any of our track events.  It is not racing and is the perfect way to let your car stretch it’s legs with out the fear of speeding tickets and at way less cost!  Also, if you’d like to help us run these events, we would love you to join us and become CAMS Licenced Official.  Another way to be involved and help your club as well as get up close to the action!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a Happy New Year and now 2019 is here we are off and running and I looking forward to seeing you at an event or somewhere soon.

Take care and drive safe.

Graeme Bell | President
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc.

P.O. Box 81, TYABB, VICTORIA. 3913
Incorporated in Victoria #A0102695G
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc is a member of:
BMW Clubs Australia and the BMW Clubs International Council CAMS Affiliated Motorsport Club