BMWC SE | 2006 South East Region Concours

BMW CAR CLUB (GB)

SOUTH EAST REGION

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WINNING DISPLAY and CONCOURS The Hop Farm - Motoring Pageant

1st / 2nd July 2006. Report and pictures by Melvyn Pettit

Sunday: time 03.20am text from club member Gordon Hyam, having broken his ankle on Wednesday while attending a RTA fire, he hoped his cousin would bring him and his BMW to the Hop Farm, but unfortunately Chris had hurt his back that night so he had two BMWs and no driver to drive them. We all wish Gordon and Chris a speedy recovery.

By 10.30am our display area was getting full, even the extended area, and at that time committee member Tony Calvert arrives having taken the wrong road, he has only been to the Hop Farm three times before. So just after 11am our regions three Judges, David Brentnall, Tony Calvert and Selwyn Frostick, start to inspect the Concours entrants cars. I take this opportunity to quickly go round and take some photographs before I have to start to add the Judging sheets up. Pauline and Louise are making the rounds selling raffle tickets to club members. At lunchtime the crowds started to gather around the Terminator Robot, which put on a display as it made its way around the show-ground. Having seen the Terminator display on Saturday I encourage club members that they should go and see the Robot and take the children along and try and decide whether the Man in Black by the sound system is fully working it or was there a person inside it. On Saturday we were fifty/fifty, but club members reported back that they could see a pair of shoes when it return to its mobile carrier cart.

Saturday dawns with early morning arrivals of classic cars of all shape and sizes. Our first BMW arrives at 7pm; we have just arrived back from shower block and not started our breakfast yet! Neville had driven his 1989 red M3 E30 from Iver, and he and his partner are staying locally over night. More BMWs arrive before the 11.30am cut off time, one being D. Cooke and family who are camping with us overnight.

One of the main attractions for us for this excellent event, is that this Motoring Pageant is held over the weekend. We can take the opportunity on Saturday to have a leisurely look around the auto jumble stalls, take in the arena motorbike displays, other attractions and the Hop Farm Museum etc, on Sunday we don’t have time as we have the South East Region Concours to run. At 4pm we gather in the Dray Bar to watch the England and Portuguese World Cup football match on the large screen television. The atmosphere was full on, with everyone cheering, whistles blowing. Then came the ROOONEY incident, and then every time a Portuguese player had the ball the whole crowd screamed Cheating ----! Extra time and England hang on with 10 men on the pitch, then penalties. The pigeon that had been flying around Bar landed on the top of the TV screen near the roof, but we get no good luck droppings from it. Up stepped Lampard to take the first England penalty, the young girl in front of us was wearing an England top with his name on, her daughter, England face paint and all. With players getting paid around £100,000 per week, surely they can hit a ball in the 8ft high by 8yd wide goal, and pass the goalkeeper. But no he misses and the young girl head in hands, had to be consoled by her father, and England go out of a Championship once again on penalties. It was a perfect English midsummer evening for a B-B-Q. The Cooke family joins us and we all watch the fireworks display being organised by a local village. We also take this time to extend our display area, as the organisers inform us that we have over fifty BMWs joining us on Sunday.

It was good to know that all the weather forecasts put this weekend’s outlook as hot and sunny and temperatures of 30 degrees in Kent. Due to our regions 2006 outside previous events being cancelled or affected by the rain, it was time to pack the suntan lotion and set off on Friday afternoon. My first stop was to navigate the M25 roadwork's and head to Chatham and pick up Pauline Wells (and her family’s camping gear), which we managed to squeeze in my coupe along with all the gear for our display area I bring along to events. Luckily Cliff would bring Louise, Sarah and DJ along after he had finished work. So with the roof open the sun beating down and Pauline’s wig, sorry I mean hair not moving in the breeze, we travel along the A288 (more roadwork's) and arrive at The Hop Farm at 3.pm where Selwyn, who has just arrived with the South East Region New Caravan, greets us. It takes us around three hours and several drinks of “water”, to set up our display area. We are joined by the rest of the gang at 7pm and we settled down to a prefect evening for a BMWCCSE B-B-Q and a few well earned drinks. Selwyn looked the part, as he unveiled his new purchase from his recent Mobile Tradition Rally, which he attended in Germany in his 2002 Tii Touring. What is the purchase you ask? He is standing by the B-B-Q with a blue and white and the Bavarian flag motif piney on and nothing else!

Saturday South East Region display

Sunday South East Region display

Is it a Robot or a man inside the Terminator?

Cleaning for Concours d' Elegance and some of the BMW's on display

BMWCC Members BMW’s on display

So on-behalf of the South East Region committee members I would like to thank all the club members who attended the event either on the Saturday or Sunday, and making it another winning display. Gordon Hyam and Peter Rust for the Raffle prizes. And for my-self, thank you to David Brentnall, Tony Calvert and Selwyn Frostick for Judging in 30’degrees heat. Pauline and Louise for helping out over the weekend and selling the Raffle tickets.

So just after 4pm club members started to leave and we started to take down our flags bunting etc. It was at this time that we were informed that the BMW Car Club South East Region had won 1st prize in the Presentation Class at the event. So Selwyn and Pauline went over to the main arena and not only collected our show plaques they also received the Trophy. So we now have another cup to add to our South East Region Trophy collection.

Then it was on to the Concours D’Elegance trophy Awards.

Winners are as Follows:

At 3.30pm I start proceedings by asking Pauline to pull the first Raffle prize ticket. The first winner was Tony Wakeling who took away the first prize of 1:18 scale Alexander Calder 1975 BMW 3.0CSL BMW Art Car model, kindly donated by club member Gordon Hyam. Other items in the raffle included items brought back by Selwyn from his Rally in Germany, plus a Staff T-shirt from the BMW Club Europa meeting Vosges 2006 donated by Peter Rust. Other items donated by Pauline Wells plus the usual BMW models and booby prizes.

Raffle Ticket sellers Pauline and Lou Wells and top Prize winner Tony Wakeling