News

Note from BCCM Munich

We have exciting news to share with you! Starting next year, there will be a special room in the BMW Museum in Munich dedicated to our club’s content. To make this project a success, we need your support. What We're Looking For: We are seeking high-resolution images of club members with their BMWs. These photos will be displayed on a wall in the "Encounters" room at the BMW Museum. What Makes a Great Photo: We especially love photos that capture spontaneous moments. However, pictures where you are proudly posing in front of your BMW are also welcome. Important Notice: Please note that the images will be visible to all visitors throughout the exhibition. By providing us with your photos, you agree to their public display in accordance with the GDPR. Send us your pictures at: bccm@bmwgroup-classic.com. How You Can Help: Please share this call with all club members and help us make this special exhibition a success! Thank you for your support, and we look forward to your submissions! Best regards, Your BMW Club & Community Management Team

Our 2024 Motorkhana Round 3 was held yesterday on the skidpan at Sydney Motorsport Park. The sun was out but so was the wind, keeping the volunteers busy with drifting cones and flying marquees but we got there in the end.

The event was fully sold out with 40 drivers entered with a good mixture of cars all round. The event started a little slow with competitors trickling in, no thanks to the million Fords taking part in the show and shine next door at the drag strip. Competition was tight with the top order changing every round. Thank you to all of the volunteers for assisting with running the event, those who stayed to the end to help pack up and to all of the competitors to making it another fantastic event. Special mention to Andrew Best's CV joint for sacrificing itself for the win. Worth it!

Overall

1st Andrew Best (Ford Focus RS)

2nd Alex Wong (E82 135i)

3rd Chris Benny (F87 M2)

BMWs

1st Alex Wong (E82 135i)

2nd Chris Benny (F87 M2)

3rd Adam Fish (F20 M140i)

Others

1st Andrew Best (Ford Focus RS)

2nd James Hughes (Mazda NB MX-5)

3rd John Driver (Toyota 86)

Shootout

1st James Hughes (Mazda NB MX-5)

2nd John Driver (Toyota 86)

3rd Paul Pettersen (Toyota Yaris GR)

Supersprint SS.5 was to be at Amaroo Circuit on 9 Aug but due to insufficient driver registration, this Supersprint was Cancelled.    

On Saturday 29 Jun we ran Club Supersprint SS.4 at Druitt Circuit.  It was a fine and sunny winter’s day with 48 drivers, 47 of them setting times.  Rod Minetti actually covered 61 laps of the 2.8KM circuit (that is 170 KMs).  At his Supersprint speed it has to be a whole tank full of petrol.  I noticed the track's petrol service doing a roaring trade.  

The results and the points table are on the website in   https://bmwclubnsw.asn.au/Results/  Included in the Points Table the total points for each driver have been highlighted where we have received the Annex-C for his car.  These Annex-C forms are required to have the car in the correct Supersprint Championship class.    

We relatively successfully ran the new “Fill-in online and Subscribe” forms  replacing the old usual paper-work scheme.  Disclaimer, Event and Scrutineering forms were written in Google Forms by Winston Loke.  Most drivers succeeded in using this online arrangement. We are now looking at combining these forms into Wild Apricot registration so accumulating the forms as data becomes a single seamless process.  Thanks to Winston. 

Attendance at the Club's SuperSprint events has been down all year, while the cost of events has risen. We have heard from other clubs that run track days that attendance at their events has also been lower than previous. This has an impact on the ability of the Club to fund SuperSprints going forward.

Yesterday's event at Eastern Creek cost the Club $22,800 including track hire of around $18,000. Attendance by 48 drivers equated to income of only $12,270 meaning a potential loss of over $10,000 on this event. The ARDC (managers of the Eastern Creek venue) graciously provided a rebate on the track hire cost of around $5,400 to lessen the loss. Note: if we were able to have a full field of 60 drivers, we would need to charge $380 per entry to cover the costs.

The recent Member survey attempted to find out why attendance has been lower than usual, and to gage preferences for the number of events and event formats. These results will inform the planning for the SuperSprint calendar for next year and likely result in fewer BMW Club only events, with participation in multi-club events to supplement event numbers. Hopefully these changes will continue to provide valuable benefits to Members while eliminating financial losses on events next year.

I am pleased to provide the update that our external consultant has been reviewing the content and format of the Club's website, and also the Membership migration data. We are working closely with him to prioritise the work items and will keep you all updated on the progress.

On Saturday we held our 2024 Motorkhana Round 2 event at Sydney Motorsport Park. It was a wet one with rain on (mostly) and off throughout the day but this didn't dampen any of the fun. In fact the rain kept the skidpan probably more consistently wet than with the sprinklers and arguably kept the cars a bit cleaner too! The event was fully sold out with 38 out of 40 drivers turning up. There was a good mix of cars from from an E30 to a couple of brand new G87 M2s as well as a bunch of interesting non-BMWs including a Yaris GR, a turbo 86 and the Robinson's diff welded Ford Falcon. Thank you as always to the volunteers who helped out on the day (Bob Williams, Victor Yee, Matt, Dominique, Rod and Andrew)

Congratulations to the top drivers of the day!

Overall
1st Andrew Best (Ford Focus RS)
2nd James Hughes (Maxda NB MX-5)
3rd Alex Wong (Maxda NB MX-5)

BMWs
1st Phlip Middlebrook (E92 335i)
2nd Benjamin Benny (F87 M2)
3rd Rod Minetti (F20 M140i)

Others
1st Andrew Best (Ford Focus RS)
2nd James Hughes (Maxda NB MX-5)
3rd Alex Wong (Maxda NB MX-5)

Shootout
1st James Hughes (Maxnda NB MX-5)
2nd Philip Middlebrook (E92 335i)
3rd Paul Pettersen (Toyota Yaris GR)

Have you downloaded the Wild Apricot app to your smartphone yet? See what events are coming, register for the events, check what you have registered for, see your Membership information, access your Membership card, and much more. Search Wild Apricot member app in your app store and use your website login details to set up access.

I am pleased to report that since the AGM, the Committee has been working to prioritise items for enhancement on the Club's website. We have engaged an external consultant to review the enhancements. A further update will be given once the external consultant provides feedback on our items, and any other enhancements that may be desirable to implement. 

New Fill-in online paperwork for Supersprints.  Club Member Winston Loke has produced three Motorsport Forms that are to be filled-in online. 

We have had online registration for years but it included forms that were pieces of paper. We have now progressed to online fill-in and submit forms. No more of that old download, print, fill in and bring those forms as pieces of paper with you to the sign-on desk at the track on the day.  Instead of that now, once you have registered and paid on the familiar registration, come back to these three forms. This process is simple. You click on the link, it opens the form, you fill it in and click on Submit.   

Risk, Disclaimer and Indemnity Form 

Self-Scrutiny Statement of Vehicle Compliance 

BMW Drivers Club - Scrutineering Form

The new Process:  Your Disclaimer and Compliance go directly to the Sign-on desk with all your usual information that you supplied on your  Registration as entries on the Event Spreadsheet.  The Sign-on desk staff mark you present, issue your driver's wrist band and present you with your "Entered sticker".  That sticker has your Car Number, Starting Grid, Stating Place and a box to be signed by the scrutineer. 

Next is Scrutineering.  The Scrutineer has your submitted scrutiny form on a giant spreadsheet. Don't take your car to Scrutineering unless it is ready as described in the Supp. Regs. or you will be simply waved away to come back later.  If you and your car are ready then you, your car and your "Entered sticker" go to the scrutineer who checks your car, if your car passes, signs your sticker, then attaches your signed sticker to your car.  

If you are to be involved in Familiarisation Laps or Appreciation Laps for Flag Marshals, then there is the Motorsport Australia Passenger Ride Form for driver and passenger to fill in and submit to Sign-on Desk. 

We are looking at combining the normal Registration for a Motorsport Event with the Fill-in online forms built into the registration. All in one process rather than the four as it is now.  Expect to see this development later in the year. 

ALSO

Qualified Motorsport Australia Officials.  We must have Motorsport Australia qualified officials. Please be involved. All the information on qualifications and training is on the Motorsport Australia website. https://motorsport.org.au/officials . Firstly, get your General Official qualification. It is an online short course.

Then look the  https://motorsport.org.au/officials/structure for information on officials and https://motorsport.org.au/membership/officials/training

We need these officials and there are training modules for Bronze Circuit Official (available online), Bronze Event Administration (available online), Bronze Event Command (available online)  Bronze Scrutineer and Steward.   

The best way to get a Motorsport Australia Speed licence is to go to https://portal.motorsport.org.au/octozy/login "Sign up now", create your account, sign-in, click "My licence Applications"  and purchase you licence on-line. 

Motorsport Program, Supersprint Rules and Annex-C for 2024s are all on the Website in https://bmwclubnsw.asn.au/Motorsport. The call is for all competitors to complete their 2024 Annex-C now.  We must have all the Supersprint cars in their correct 2024 Championship class.  No Annex-C for your car then no entry to any Supersprint. 

Motorsport Flag Marshal Group.  We call for club members to form a group of Flag Marshals to look after providing Flag Marshal services for our Supersprints at Sydney Motorsport Park. It is very involving with transceivers, flags and MyLap controllers assisting with the safety of our Supersprints. If you can help, please contact Motorsport@bmwclubnsw.asn.au

Registration for Volunteers & Officials.  For each Supersprint event we now have a separate entry for all the officials to register so we know who is going to be at the event to make it possible to run. All drivers who can, please register to assist with Sign-on Desk, Scrutineering, event management, and most importantly, Flag Marshals.  Event Management includes Clerk of the Course, Steward, Chief Scrutineer, Race Control, Starting Grid Official and Driver training instructors for Driver Experience events. As we have included in the Supersprint Rules Point 6.4, we must have volunteer officials. Please register whenever you can to make running event possible. 

Our first motorkhana event for 2024 was held on Sunday at Sydney Motorsport Park. It started off a little rainy but the weather cleared up nicely. The event was fully sold out and there a few interesting cars that showed up including a couple of new G81 M3 Tourings and a V8 swapped Toyota 86.

Thank you all of the volunteers, Clerk of Course Bob Williams, and those on timing and cones, Max, Matt and Dominique.

Congratulations to the top drivers!

Overall

1st - James Hughes (NB MX-5)

2nd - Alex Wong (E82 135i)

3rd - Chris Benny (F87 M2)

BMWs

1st - Alex Wong (E82 135i)

2nd - Chris Benny (F87 M2)

3rd - Adam Laura (G81 M3 Touring)

Others

1st - James Hughes (NB MX-5)

2nd - Patrick Kong (Subaru BRZ)

3rd - John Driver (Toyota 86)

Shootout

1st - Alex Wong (E82 135i)

2nd - James Hughes (NB MX-5)

3rd - Kim Hughes (NB MX-5)