Dear Members,

Welcome to all the new members that have joined us through lockdown. Our membership is sitting at 468 as I write this, and it continues to amaze me how our club has grown in such a short time. I think the committee and membership as a whole, deserve a huge pat on the back for making this the best BMW Club around. It is amazing to see we have continued to grow, even though we haven’t been able to get out and about and run events.

Very soon you will be receiving edition 2 of our wonderful annual Journal, idrive. I have seen a few snippets and I can’t wait to see it in print and read all of your stories and be taken back to all the wonderful events we ran over the last year.  Thank you to the advertisers and sponsors that have come on board to allow us to produce such a world class Journal. You will be impressed; Jess and Leigh have done an amazing job, yet again.  It's hard to think it could be better than edition 1, but I think you will be amazed at what you get in your mailbox.

Finally, the good news we have all been waiting for, we will be getting out and about again now the restrictions are starting to ease. After months of self-isolation and everyone doing their best to stem the spread, we can now start running events again.

We had another great virtual members meeting at the start of the month with a remote tour around club Sponsor, Creative Custom Cars. Alan How giveus an amazing tour of the projects they have there at the moment. We also recorded the tour and the rest of the meeting, if you would like to go and have a look, it is here.

We have been working on future events and getting ready to get back to our new normal.  The last few months have been very different, which I think make us realise how lucky we are living in Australia.  When you look at what has happened in other countries, we have been very lucky and have been able to contain anything that has come here, now allowing us to start venturing out again. As we start getting out and about again we recommend you download the Australian Government's Covid-Safe App and have it working on your phone when you do come to events, it will make it a lot easier if something does happen and we need to follow up with all who attend.

We will still have our members meeting for June virtually, with representatives from different areas of motorsport officiating joining in to tell us about their area of expertise.  We often ask for people to come and help at our track days or to register with Motorsport Australia as an Official, so this is your chance to log in and ask questions about the many varied roles available to officiate at a club or race meeting.  We often think of flaggies or scrutineers as they are the ones we see most, but there are lots of jobs that need to be filled to run an event and if you’d like to get involved without driving (or get into some of the big race meetings for free) then there are plenty of roles to choose from. Join us on Zoom on Tuesday, 2 June to find out more.

Our first meet-up and drive since all this began, will be on the Queen’s Birthday Holiday Monday. We are very much looking forward to getting out and seeing people and going for a drive again, especially along some of Peter Williams’ amazing drive routes.

On Sunday, 14 June we are back on track, literally!  Our Driver Training and Come & Try Day at Sandown is all go.  We released entries on Saturday night last weekend and before the end of the week we were sold out with a growing wait list.   We have, and still are, working very closely with Sandown and Motorsport Australia to get us back on track and we will be one of the very first clubs to return to running track days under the new regulations.  The rules are still evolving on exactly what we will be doing, or allowed to do, on the day.  We will have a lot of changes to how we run the event and some officials from Motorsport Australia are coming along to see how we do it and how the new rules will work in practice.  It will be interesting, and we are confident everything will work as it should and everyone will have a great time.  One thing I will mention is that we cannot have spectators at this event. So if you are not entered or an official unfortunately you won't be able to come and watch this time.

The good news continues though, our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship Round 5, including the Cross-Border Cup with BMW Drivers Club NSW at Winton on 4 July is only a few weeks after Sandown.  If you miss out on Sandown, or indeed go to Sandown and need another track fix, we will have the entries out for that shortly too.  We need lots of Victorian members to come and help us bring the Cross-Border Cup home!  Keep your eyes on your email, as soon as Motorsport Australia approve the supplementary regulations, we will get them out to you.

That’s it from me for now, I am very much looking forward to getting out and seeing our members and running events again.  It is important to remember that we still need to be sensible, keep your social distance and keep up your hand washing and other sanitary processes and we will be able to get back to normal and keep every one safe at the same time.

Take care, see you down the road somewhere.

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