VW Nationals 2016
2016 VW Nationals
Well the 29th VW Nationals have come and gone, and again our biggest VW show of the year was very well attended. The VW Nationals and the club itself could not exist without help from our club members and the club committee. We needed help leading up to the Nationals, during the day and after a long day at the show packing up the venue, so a big thanks you to you all. The show wouldn’t have been a success without your help.
Again the Supersprint was held in Sydney, at Sydney Motorsport Park at Eastern Creek. Thank you to Dave Birchall for organising this venue again. Many of us are glad that we’re not making the trek to Wakefield Park and back over the weekend.
The Supersprint was well attended, with competitor numbers increasing again to a full field of 80 this year. Invitations to members of other CAMS clubs were sent out, so there were a few non-VWs running; even so, we had more VWs competing than non VWs. A lot of people came out to watch the action at the various vantage points around the track. David Birchall is already trying to organise the same venue for next year’s supersprint, and if so hopefully we can get even more VWs competing.
Thank you to Chris Fraser for all your admin work with CAMS and in the office on the day; the day would have been impossible without you and it was good see Chris smiling during the day as apart from a few incidents went off really well. Chris even got a chance to do a few laps in his Polo. Thanks too to all the scrutineers, marshals and flaggies who made the day run smoothly. Norm Robertson and Sue Monaghan help out at various CAMS events throughout the year and this allows us to get return favours from clubs that he has helped out during the year. We have a very small group of club members who have been trained by CAMS to be officials on the day. They did a great job but we need more club members to get involved. Our club has over 450 members with only very few of them helping out at the Supersprint.
After the Supersprint it was off to Fairfield to get the venue setup for Sunday’s show n shine - setting up signs, setting the layout, putting up tables, hanging banners, organising the club office and shop and all the other work getting the venue ready. It was really good not having to dash back from Wakefield Park at Goulburn after the Supersprint to do the setting up. Speaking of signs, did anybody notice the beautiful new metal signs that Zelko had made up?
Sunday saw cars and traders began arriving before dawn and soon it was a hive of activity. Almost all the traders were in place early, and we had several brand new VWs on display. This year we had Five Dock Volkswagen on site. They donated some great raffle prizes and also handed out the trophies at the end of the day. The swappers had a bit more space this year, and we noticed there were more water-cooled VWs in the show than ever. There were also numerous newly restored older VWs that hadn’t been seen before.
Thank you to all the sponsors who for their continued support; the updated sponsor list appears on the back page of this magazine. Please support them, because they support us.
The show classes and peer judging were streamlined quite a bit this year, with the forms redesigned to be simpler and faster to fill out. The queues at the entry were long but the cars moved through a bit quicker than previous years. We had 213 entries in the car show this year. The two most popular categories were Beetle ‘58-67 Modified, and T1 Kombi up to 1967 Modified, both of which had 16 entries. T2 Kombi 1968-79 Standard had 15 entries; Rat Class had 13 entries; Beetle 1968-on had 12 entries. The Golf 3, and Golf 6, categories both had 9 entries. The ten most-popular classes were awarded a second-prize trophy as well as a first prize.
Altogether there were 56 Transporters, 53 Beetles, and 46 Golfs entered (not including Rats), the three most popular VW models. This year was the first time we had a separate Golf 7 category, and 4 of them were entered.
Reflecting the high quality of the entrants, there were 8 cars, across the different categories, that each received more than 20 votes in the peer judging. One Beetle and one Kombi both received 24 votes; one Scirocco received 23 votes. Altogether, 1,157 votes were cast in the Peer Judging, which could be tabulate easily thanks to Phil’s redesigned custom Excel spreadsheet and Lily’s efficient keying in.
Peer judging doesn’t require adding up the scores, but rather counting the instances of any given entrant number. Excel has a function for this, which proved perfect for the task. Phil and Lily did an excellent job and had the results ready in plenty of time.
There was only 1 Factory Offroad entry this year – a Type 181, and only 1 air-cooled Race Car (a drag VW). There was only 1 Polo and only 1 water-cooled Convertible. There were 2 Audis, but only 1 SEAT. There were no Skodas and no Standard Karmann Ghias entered this year, but we will still have these classes again next year.
This year we again had an additional Concours class, judged by two VW industry experts. There were 3 entrants this year. We also gave trophies for People’s Choice – the most popular air- and water-cooled VWs overall – as well as VW Group car of the day, chosen by Jason from Five Dock Volkswagen, and the Ray Pleydon Award, chosen by Shirley.
Thank you to all the helpers on the main gate, and the traffic marshals, and the band of ladies, Gwen, Martha, Susan and Shirley, who handled the car show entry forms and helped all the entrants come through as quickly and smoothly as possible. We also had valuable help at the gate from Graham Ingram, helping people put their cars on the correct class and John Ladomatos helping out as well.
This year my son David was not available, so Connie took photos of the entrants’ cars as they came through the gate. She and Phil spent considerable time matching up the photos to the winners for the Powerpoint presentation, which was ready well before the 3pm presentation. Lily counted all the People’s Choice tickets. Christine’s raffles were as popular as always, and this year’s designs for the shirts and jackets were well received. The club stand was busy all day. Thank you to Raymond and Grace, Kira, Bettina and Lily for helping in the shop all day.
Parramatta Rotary again did a great job with the BBQ lunch, and Joe had arranged for country yodeller Johanna Hamara to entertain the crowd.
At 2:30 pm the crowd began gathering for the raffle draw. Matt White and Christine drew the raffle for the Camden GTI Golf giveaway. Then at 3pm Jason from Five Dock Volkswagen and I presented the trophies to the winners, with Phil doing the microphone work. It all went well, but six of the trophy winners weren’t around to collect them. They’ll be at the next meeting for winners to collect.
Once again, thank you to all our members who helped out with the Nationals, both at Sydney Motorsport Park on Saturday and at Fairfield on Saturday night and Sunday. It made the setting up, running of the show and the packing up afterwards so much easier. A huge thank you to everyone, and especially to Dave Birchall. We were all worn out at the end of the day. I think the golf buggy really saved our aging legs on the day. We are open to all input from our members, both at the Committee and Monthly Club meetings, on the Nationals this year. What you liked, what you didn’t and how we can make it even better next year. Don’t be shy, let us know what you think. So if you have some great ideas, please come along. Or drop us an email or leave a message on the Club website.
See you with your VW soon,
Steve Carter
