VW Nationals 2011
2011 VW Nationals
Well, another Nationals has come and gone. It makes me feel old to think that I, along with other committee members, was at the first one in 1988 at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College.
It was another great weekend packed with VW activities. The Supersprint at Wakefield Park was well attended by competitors and spectators. I had to be a spectator this year, and hopefully next year my son and I can run both our Beetles. The show day at Fairfield had the debut of many new cars to the scene and some familiar ones, all were immaculately presented.
I would like to thank all the members who helped make the Supersprint and the show day such a success. Thanks to all our sponsors on the day, without which there would be no show and also the entrants on both the days.
You may have noticed a fellow with a big video camera in his face at both days; he’s an old friend of mine and his name is Phil Mass. Phil is member of the Porsche club of NSW, but his daily ride is a Type 3 Notch. He’s renowned for his Porsche club documentaries and he came to the VW Nationals to document the event for us. Later in the year after some editing he will show the documentary at small cinema at the Edge complex in Katoomba. Keep an eye out in the club calendar for this.
This year’s show seemed bigger to me which is a good sign with some people finding things a little tough financially lately. The swap meet was definitely the biggest ever, and I haven’t seen that many trader stands either.
Special thanks to our car show judges. Their job is thankless, but it’s a great way to see every car in the show. We kept the judges in club this year; since 1996 volunteers from Canberra, Flat Four and Illawarra have helped us but it’s unfair to keep asking them to judge a show that isn’t theirs. Before that we had judges from the Street Machine Association – boy that always caused a few complaints. This year our own members did an excellent job and we were luckily able to allocate the judges so that they weren’t judging their own cars’ categories. The water-cooled peer-judging system again worked brilliantly and is much faster. I think we’re all agreed that we’ll move to peer judging for all categories for next year.
This year the swappers were able to spill out into a previously unused area next to the trotting track, and luckily the weather was fantastic.
Once again thanks to all members who helped out at Wakefield, on the night before show, during the show day, and again packing up on Sunday night after the show it’s great to see so many helpers.
My son David prepared a multimedia presentation of all the winning VWs to coincide with the trophy presentation, but we couldn’t show it. Last year Phil’s 50" TV was too small (!) so this year we tried our big 2.5-metre screen and projector. But the bright daylight, even under cover, made it impossible to see anything. I think we’ll go back to using a big TV next year. In the meantime, we’ll show David’s presentation at the meeting on Thursday 16th at the Greyhound Club.
We’ll also use the meeting as a forum for ideas on the Nationals – what you liked and disliked, and ideas for how we can make the show even better next year. So if you have some great ideas, please come along on the 16th.
Don’t forget to support our show sponsors this year. They’re all listed on the back page of each month’s magazine. These people help us out, so if you’re looking for something for your car go along and see them.
See you soon,
Steve Carter
