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BMW Drivers Club Melbourne

The Australian Grand Prix that nearly happened

16 Mar 2020 6:22 PM | Anonymous


On Wednesday, 11 March we all arrived at gate 5 nice and early to put our pride and joys on display for the weekend of the 25th Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, one of our favourite display events of the year.

I was happy that all arrived well before time and after we all received our tickets and credentials, we managed to get ushered into position at 12.20pm.  Not bad seeing our bump in time was 12.30!

We lined all the cars up in age range to drive to our display location, and once we got there, Sean Bell and Lawrence Glynn got all the cars lined up and looking fabulous.  We had an amazing range from 1964 to 2020 all gleaming and ready to show the world.

We made sure all the cars had BMWDCM windscreen banners and an information sheet inside their cars, so that the general public could read about our wonderful display.  The display area looked great with flags and banners.  This was going to be another great year, proudly displaying at this fantastic event... We hoped.

After a final check and some photos we all headed home for the afternoon, expecting to be back each day over the coming weekend to chat to people, revel in the atmosphere and enjoy the racing.

We were very lucky this year to have Melbourne BMW displaying their new 2 Series Gran Coupe and I would like to thank them so much for coming on board as Sponsors for 2020 and helping us with the display. The new Gran Coupe looked fabulous in our display.

Another new Club Sponsor, Adex Car Detailing, was also there with one of their cars - another huge thank you for coming on board this year and joining our Display.

We also had the President and Vice President from BMW Car Club Gold Coast bring their lovely E30 325is which they drove down, and it was looking amazing after they managed to find a car wash and clean off 1,000kms of road grime.   Andrew Grosse from BMW Drivers Club NSW also brought his 635 Group A replica, which was in with the E30 racing cars, who we shared a second display with nextdoor.  If you didn’t know you would have thought this was the original car, what an amazing machine. 

Thursday was a little quiet at the track.  With the virus scare numbers were a little low but the display still had lot of interest and Lawrence was kept busy chatting to people all day.

Then on Friday came the news we were all waiting for but hoping it would not come, the whole Grand Prix Event was cancelled!

What a disaster and what a real shame, as all the teams were there and set up and cars were even on the pre grid waiting to go out.

Lawrence went in the help coordinate the collection of the display cars and after several phone calls and texts we managed to get all the cars picked up and the area cleared as the authorities wanted.  Those that were there at the final moments said it was such an eery feeling with the track and surrounds looking like a ghost town. 

Unfortunately this is something that had to happen for the safety of the public and all the drivers and officials and we would like to thank all our members and sponsors who attended and put their cars on display and also managed to drop things at very short notice and get the cars back out.

We look forward to returning in 2021 and hope that this ongoing situation doesn’t continue too long and we can all get back to some normality.

Jo Mawson | Member #2
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne



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