Dear Members,

What a start to the Year, with a group of BMWDCM members making the annual pilgrimage to Bathurst for the 12 Hour to start a very busy month.

Some of our members camped, while others took the option of booking into the more comfortable 12-hour package, with nice Motel Accommodation in town and all the trimmings in the Bathurst Club on top of the pits for the 4 days, which we chose to do.

It was an amazing weekend with private tours of BMW Walkenhorst pit garage, race control, podium tours, grid walks on the race morning and helicopter rides around the track while the cars were out, well worth the money! 

We love this event as we also get to meet up with our fellow club members from other states.  We had a lovely catch up dinner with them all on Friday night.  It was great to see people from all over the country coming together to enjoy a meal and chat about all things from the race, to club life in general.

If you can, I really recommend coming to this event.  It is a fantastic race as well as being a great social meet up. Put it in your calendar for next year!

The following weekend, we had a fantastic turn out for the Torquay drive on the Saturday and then the Torquay Motor Show display on the Sunday, with some amazing cars turning out.  We love these two day events as we can really relax and enjoy the company of our fellow members on Saturday night and makes it an easier start on Sunday morning.

Our first members meeting for 2020 was then held at Shannons showrooms with Jay Leno Garage Advanced Vehicle Care attending, giving us a very detailed demonstration on cleaning and preparing our cars.  We have been very lucky to have them come on board as valued sponsors of the club for 2020.  Two of our lucky members walked away with some great cleaning products from our lucky barrel draw.  We were even luckier to have the guys from Jay Leno’s clean our car and I must say, she is still looking great after all the treatments to the wheels, tyres and trims.

The third weekend for February saw a few members doing their OLT (Observed Licence Test) at Sandown to get their racing licence.  Then quite a few members raced in the first round of E30 Racing.  The weather was all over the place, very hot and humid on Friday turning to a downpour, then a wet Saturday and finally a sunny Sunday. The racing was good with lots of close racing and fun had by all.   Round 2 of the E30 Racing Championship is at Winton on 27-29 March if you are up that way and want to stop in for a look.

Our first round of the 2020 Yokohama/Traction Tyres Drivers Championship at Sandown on 22 February turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day, with over 120 cars entered.  Thank you to all the BMWDCM members who came along and helped with volunteering as officials, it would not run as smoothly if it wasn’t for you guys.  Many members also posted personal best times and having lots of track time.   Round 2 of the Yokohama/Traction Tyres Drivers Championship will be at Winton on 19 April.  Keep an eye out for entries to come out and come up and have some fun with us up there.

You never know what might turn up at club sprints - some interesting cars come along, like an exceptional historic ALFA Periscopio, which is going to be doing some laps of the AGP circuit in March having a shakedown, having just arrived from Italy.

Jess has been very busy putting the second edition of idrive magazine together and we have been very fortunate to get some fantastic new sponsors this year. Thank you and welcome aboard! Thank you to all that are or have written stories for edition 2.  If you have promised something please get it to Jess as soon as possible, as the deadline is fast approaching.  We can’t wait to see edition 2, the first edition was such an amazing magazine, I still pick it up and read back through our first year and look at what a wonderful club we have all built.  I don’t know how we will fit the last 12 months into one magazine though.  It has again been an amazing year.  

Jo has been working hard on getting some great events out there too, so be sure to keep checking on the events calendar so that you don’t miss out on something fun.  We have such a variety of events, everything from casual club nights, informal cars & coffee meets, drives, weekends away, car Shows and displays, sprints, racing, driver training, something to suit everyone and all with a fantastic group of friendly, welcoming people with a shared passion.

March will be fun filled with our drive to Fort Queenscliff on Sunday 1 March.  Our Members Meeting at Melbourne BMW on 3 March will be very interesting, checking out some of the new models and welcoming Melbourne BMW as a new Club Sponsor for 2020.  Philip Island Festival of Speed is on 7 - 9 March is another fantastic event, there will be around 12 BMWs racing in the Group A and C categories, catch up with friends and relax on the hill.  There is also the Australian Grand Prix Display on 11-15 March.  It's a great way to be a part of the 25th anniversary of Melbourne Grand Prix.  We have some very special cars on display this year, so if you do get to the Grand Prix, make sure you came and say hello and check out what is on show.

We would love to see you at all these events and any others that pop up. Of course, if you have an idea for an event, give Jo a call and she can either help you to organise it or it may give us an idea for something later in the year. We're always open to suggestions!

A special note for a couple of events we have coming up - to help in the recovery from the devastating Bush Fires this year, we are planning a Bush Fire Recovery Run up to Bright in April over Anzac Day long weekend to try and inject some much needed funds into communities affected by the fires this year.  Please come along if you can, even for a day if you can’t make the whole weekend.  One of our favourites is also coming up, the Good Friday Appeal Display at Birrarung Marr.  All are welcome to both of these events.  These are very dear to our hearts and we would love to include all brands of cars not just BMW and the more money we can raise for these two special events the better.

Don’t forget our Second Birthday Celebration night is on 2 May.  We would love you all to come and have some fun and celebrate with us, check the event on our website, there is accommodation at the venue too so you can have a great evening and then relax for the night too.

As always, keep an eye on the emails and Facebook group and check the event calendar from time to time, as we do add events and get invited to different things all the time.  Sometimes we just post about them on the Facebook group.  The Facebook group  is also a great place to sell cars or items that are BMW or club related too.

I hope you have enjoyed some of the events already and if not, I hope to see you at an event 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
Motorsport Australia Affiliated Motorsport Club