Octagon January, 2017

Some words from Elaine
Welcome to 2017 and to the first Octagon of
the year.
A major feature of the first Octagon of any year is
the calendar - a document showing the number
and diversity of events on offer to you,
our members.
Our regular page 5 ‘Noticeboard’ continues to
highlight the events for the two months in the
immediate future; ‘Dates for Events by Type’
(pages 5 and 6) provides just what the heading
suggests while the removable four page calendar
gives a quick insight into all the events planned
for the year. (Space has not allowed for the
complete year’s events to be included but all are
on the website calendar.) A glance through it will
prove to you how vital and active our Chapters
are and our Membership Secretary has confirmed
that Chapter Members now account for more
than 50% of our membership. This is a staggering
success for which David Miles, the Club
President at the time of the formation of the first
of these Chapters and now the Chapter Liaison
Officer, deserves full credit.
Hopefully you have all made yourselves familiar
with the new calendar being used on the Club
website. If not, please go and have a look and
find out just how much more information on
events is there for you. Events are colour-coded
by Club and Chapter but there are also a number
of events in green. These are events put on by
other Clubs and which may be of interest to you.
We hope you find this useful. Those of you in
the Chapters may be surprised to find out just
how much motorsport is available for you in
your area while I know that many of our locals
who participate is motorkhanas and khanacross
etc will be jealous of the number of venues and
events available in country areas. Maybe some
Chapter Coordinators could arrange for a run to
visit some of these events.
The feature ‘Stories from the Stables’ reappears
this issue thanks to Jeff Heslewood being
prepared to give us a preview of what has been
happening in his garage. The story is quite
inspirational as well as being informative and
4
The Octagon - January 2017
entertaining. We’ve had one look at the car at
Concours, now we wait to see it on the track. I
do urge others of you to take the time to share
your stories with us - please don’t wait to
be asked!!
Peter and Delia’s reporting of their trip to Perth
and back for the 2016 National Meeting continues
in its serialised form. The final episode will
appear in the next Octagon just before they - and
others - start heading for Adelaide for this
year’s gathering.
‘Chapter Chatter’ once again shows the strength
of our Chapters (as mentioned above). However,
for this issue there is no calendar of events or
reports of past events from the new Whitsundays
Chapter due to difficulties in communication
encountered during their changeover to the NBN.
However, the reports and calendar will appear on
their website page and also on our Club calendar
as soon as the problem becomes resolved.
With only one competition event held since
our previous issue, the focus of ‘Competition
Corner’ is on the success of those in the 2016
Hillclimb Series as celebrated at the Clubrooms
on December 9th at the presentation of trophies.
You usually see photos of cars in these pages but
this time the focus is on the people behind
the wheel.
One short story, finally published in this issue,
has been patiently waiting its turn to see itself in
print and, hopefully, so has its author, Graham
Hepburn. I am sure you will find it interesting
reading as many of you will also have ‘If only’
stories to tell as well - so please be inspired by
Graham and tell us about them.
Closing date for material for the March issue is
the last day of February but please don’t wait until
then to send your items in. Life is much easier for
me if you send them to me as early as possible
as it eases the pressure on me at deadline time.
Best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy and
event-filled year!