Dear members,  

Welcome to my April Report on everything going on in our Club. I just don’t know where the months are going, seems only yesterday I was doing last month’s report.

It has again been a very busy month, with some huge events held across April.

5 April - the month started with a visit to long time Sponsors, Peninsula BM in Mornington. It was a fantastic and informative night, and we couldn’t have asked for a better evening weather-wise to finish off our daylight savings outdoor events for the year. We had a coffee van onsite and Krispy’s Burgers for dinner and everyone loved them! Dean gave a great talk on the history of Peninsula BM then took everyone on a tour of the facility. Was great to have all the team on hand to meet too, as we usually only get to speak to them on the phone, great putting faces to voices.

10^th April – one of our biggest events for a long time. We visited new club Sponsors Walkinshaw Andretti United Racing, to see their fantastic facilities and what services they can provide for members. Not only do they run a Supercar team, they can also do engine rebuilds, race car preparation, component design and manufacture, all sorts of things! We had to close the event after only a few days of registrations, so it wouldn’t be too crowded. With over 60 members on hand it was a very interesting night, talking to each of the specialists in different areas of the business and a great talk from Darcy. Was great getting up close to their 2 Supercars as they were about to head to New Zealand for the next Supercar round and the Super2 cars getting ready for their next round. Dinner was provided by the club, as usual and a great night had by all.

25-28 April – Another fantastic weekend away with our ANZAC Long Weekend trip to Beechworth. 17 cars headed off on Thursday morning, picking up a couple more on the way and then we met up with more members already up there. we enjoyed lots of twisty country roads and delicious meals all over the high country over the 4 days. Jo outdid herself organising the accommodation, it was just delightful and each of the places we had lunch or dinner was perfect. Peter’s trip book and drive routes were amazing, as always, don’t know how he does it, but he always leads us on the most amazing roads. Thanks Peter. The autumn colors were out in a blaze of color and some beautiful photos were taken of the cars lined up under a bunch of orange and red trees. We even had a little down time to do our own thing, explore the township or other sights, like woolshed falls. It was a fun weekend, and everyone had a ball, a few new members came along too and enjoyed meeting everyone on the trip. Pretty sure a few new friendships were made there, and we even picked up some new members at one of the stops when they saw all the BMWs arrive together.

I must say thank you, again, to new Club Sponsors, Doncaster BMW, for loaning Jo and I the beautiful Alpina B4. What an amazing car! I am doing a write up on it for our blog, so keep an eye out for that. Suffice to say, it was the embodiment of Sheer Driving Pleasure! What a car, more than enough power and torque to handle the hills and overtaking and handled with all the refinement and comfort of a top of the line sports touring car.

Looking ahead

There are lots of events coming up on our always busy calendar to look forward to. There have been a few changes to the motorsport and driver training events forced on us by the resurfacing at Phillip Island closure so take note of our motorsport dates below.

• 4 May - Our 6th Birthday Presentation Dinner, supporting Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. It will be an epic night, one to look forward to indeed. We sold out before we reached the cut off date so it will be another fun night out and for a very worthy cause. I am told that if we reach $2500 in donations before the night I am going to turn up with pink hair! So watch out for the photos next week, might be some very funny pics to be seen. There will be a silent auction and raffle on the night too, so it will be great to see how much we can raise for Peter Mac this year.
• 7 May - Berwick BMW members meeting, always great to drop in and see the Team at Berwick.
• 9 May - Welcome to Winter, Drop in at Daniels Donuts – Geelong, these casual meetups are getting very popular.
• 11 May - Round 2 – Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship at Sandown
• 19 May - National Motoring Heritage Day Cavalcade down Geelong way
• 2 June - Kaos Custom Bikes – Come and Try -Motorkhana at Calder Park on the Thunderdome. Was a great fun day last year and promises to be another one this time
• 15 June - Traction Tyres/ Yokohama Drivers Championship Round 3 at Calder Park on the National Circuit
• 20 July - Christmas in July – Sovereign Hill – Winter Wonderlights weekend away
• 29 July - Kaos Custom Bikes – Come and Try – Broadford
• 11 August - Kaos Custom bikes – Come and Try – Sandown
• 25 August - Traction tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship Round 5 at Phillip Island
• 29 October - 6 November – Tasmania Trip 2 - The Northern Half
• 10 November - Hill Climb – Bryant Park our first Hill climb for a couple of years, will be great to get back down to Morwell
• 14 November - AGM at the German Tivoli Club
• 21- 24 November - Challenge Bathurst
• 1 December - Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship Round 6 – Phillip Island
• 8 December - Christmas Show & Shine – Family picnic – Cruden Farm

To register for any of the above events, head on over to our calendar. 

Remember to keep an eye on emails and updates, as dates do change, sometimes by events out of our control, and new events are added all the time, and I’d hate to see you miss out on something.

Our new motorsport top has sold out and we are waiting for a new order to arrive. The new design was very popular, and they do look fantastic, so get your orders in as soon as you can, and we’ll send them out, or come to our track days and we will have stock there. Check out all the other club merchandise in our store too, always lots to chose from.

Edition 6 of our wonderful magazine, idrive, is with the printer as we speak, so you will receive it on Saturday if you are at the 6th Birthday Celebration Dinner, or it will be in the mail next week. Can’t wait to see the next edition. Well done to all who contributed stories, but especially Jo for chasing up content and Jess for all her continued hard work putting it all together. She does an amazing job, and we are all very proud of her and the end result of her toils.

Membership continues to grow, above 800 members now, so welcome to all of you have joined and thank you to all of you that keep renewing. We must be doing something right to keep you coming back. As always though, this is your club, so if you have an event idea or suggestion, don’t hesitate to get in touch with any of the committee and we will see what we can do. We are always looking for inspiration and new places to visit.

It is now just under 12 months until we are hosting the BMW Clubs Australia Nationals in Melbourne, over the ANZAC weekend, 2025. Keep the date free in your calendar. Planning is well underway, we are building a web site and setting up the entry system as we speak. All of this will be released very soon. It is looking like a great event. So make sure you keep the weekend free to come and join us. We will also be looking for lots of helpers to run the Nationals, so keep that in mind too for when we put out a call for helpers.

Our welfare team has been working away quietly in the background, providing support and assistance where needed. It is a great part of the club we have that there is a facility there when we need it. Very proud of the work the team do and very heartwarming to see the results of being there when someone needs a shoulder to lean on. If you need any help or an ear to listen to a problem, reach out, they are there to help in any way we can.

Take care out there, especially as the days get colder and wetter as we head into Winter, and I look forward to seeing you at an event soon.

BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc.

PO 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