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Chairman’s Report
Chairman’s Report - March 2022
by David Tomlinson Yet again the pandemic has interrupted our activities. We made the call to cancel all March club events, and I believe it was clearly the right thing to do, as the “wave” of Omicron reached its peak in Rotorua around mid-March, with 3000 cases locally. I am aware that even some triple vaccinated branch members caught the virus, so it was definitely in our best interests to have another month off. Many other events continued to be cancelled, but I did manage to get up to the Classic Car breakfast at the Jukebox Diner in Hamilton on the first Sunday in March, also winning “car of the day” and “farthest travelled” so I got some MTA fuel vouchers and a restaurant voucher. Fleur and I had also entered Taupo branch’s annual rally in March, but this was another one of the many casualties of Covid. In early April I was supposed to take part the last week of a three week national rally of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars, but this event was another casualty, so for the first time Fleur and I took part in the “Oil Down”, a coffee and cars meet at the lower carpark at Tauriko Shopping Centre in Tauranga. There was a very good turnout of cars, but I was told it was down on the usual number. While it was mainly American cars, there were a few Europeans, and a few Aussie, Japanese and UK cars. In March the NZ Ferrari Owners Club had their AGM in Rotorua, and we had tried to get an owner to take Alex for a drive without success, but we did manage to get him a drive around the carpark in a 2013 Ferrari California at the Tauriko gathering. All drivers present were very friendly, and genuinely interested in all the cars on display. We will be back. The cancelled R-R/B Club tour was replaced at short notice with a weekend event as this magazine goes to press in Taupo. Fleur and I entered, but at the last moment we lost our child minder, so I went ahead and managed to win the poker run rally with a borrowed co-driver. Our hand was two pair, “9 high”, and no one else got better than a pair. I took our recently overhauled 1933 car, and there was only one other Rolls-Royce there amongst a slew of Bentleys. I came second in the
R-R concours! We also visited the Arapuni swing bridge, the Aratiatia Rapids to watch the sluice gates open, and attended a glass blowing demonstration at Lava Glass. All went well, other than my holding the clutch in a little too long, late in the day when the car was very warm, and the plate stuck. After it finally freed up it is now working better than ever, but I will have to put up with the burning smell for a while until it completely dissipates. Our April meeting was to feature Michael Thorne’s Rover P5B as the car in the room, but this will now be put back a month or so, and at short notice I will bring in a car I have not displayed in the room before, my blue Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II. With the changes to the “red light settings” allowing up to 200 people indoors without any mandatory vaccination rules, we will be back to normal from now on, but members are encouraged at all our events, indoors and outdoors, to make their own choice as to whether they wish to wear masks. Our April run is the Night Run, which will be on Sunday 24 April, the weekend after Easter, but as this goes to print I can’t give more details. It will be a late afternoon run followed by a simple BYO dinner at the clubrooms.
Our Swap Meet is definitely a “go” in July as planned, and we have set a replacement date for the 10th Anniversary Lakefront Car Show. It will now be held on Sunday, 30 October, the weekend after Labour weekend. We will have the whole Village Green at our disposal. We could not get the whole lawn for any earlier date after the middle winter months. Planning will continue for our branch’s 50th year celebrations, and the Sulphur City Rally, and more details will be available for both events as they develop. Hopefully from here on in 2022 will start to normalise, and we can enjoy all manner of events, not just our own branch events. Lastly, our May club night will also be our AGM, and we will have some committee positions to fill. After many years in the role, our Treasurer Terry Fitzpatrick will be stepping down, and we will also lose Dennis Brown and Jenny Cole from the committee as they head off overseas for 6 months, another sign life is returning slowly back to normal. If you have any interest in the Treasurer role, please talk with Terry or with Dennis Whimp. You will be eased in to the role with as much support as we can offer. Any service on the committee is very greatly appreciated.
