November 1998 Volume 79 Number 11 "serving the protectors"
SA Police Motorcycle Club
By Jim Andrew, President

AGM

The club’s annual general meeting will be held on 3 December. The committee hopes that as many current members attend as possible and have their say on that night - all committee positions will be open for re-election. There may also be some minor changes to the club’s constitution raised for voting. Queries regarding the AGM should be directed to committee members.

Sponsor

Peter Stevens Motorcycles manager, Brent Stafford, conveyed his thanks to members of the club through me for patronising the club’s major sponsor. Good sponsors in the form of Peter Stevens are very hard to secure - and even harder to keep. I urge all members to continue to patronise this sponsor.

Club Ride

The last club road ride started from Ampol Salisbury Park on Sunday, 20 September. About half a dozen members met and headed to Williamstown and on towards Angaston.

Col Jackson and partner, on board his nice new Bmer, caught up with the pack. It was their first club ride as new members. Another new member, Mark Patton, from Elizabeth patrols, ventured out on his near-new Harley Fatboy, wearing the usual open face helmet and “sunnies”. Mark found out later that bugs hitting you at 100km/h do actually hurt your face. Nonetheless, all concerned had the usual lunch and made their way back through Birdwood to Adelaide.

Phillip Island

Cauncy (O/C Pinnaroo), one non-member and I rode to Phillip Island, Victoria for the World 500cc championships on the October long weekend.

Steve Winter (Transit) followed us in his XR8 Falcon. We met at Eagle on the Hill and arrived at the Island 10 hours later. Why did it take so long? I got lost in Melbourne, somewhere along St. Kilda Rd. Sitting in the saddle for 10 hours certainly tested the body.

We arrived at the track on the Friday morning to watch the practice and first qualifying. The 500s were awesome.

On Saturday we watched further qualifying, did the usual lap around the track (about five kms) and attended the night’s festivities in nearby Cowes. The crowd on this night was absolutely huge. It was like sardines on the street: you couldn’t move. There were the usual burn-outs, poll climbing and fireworks.

We watched the support classes, stunt riders and other events on the Sunday. The 125 and 250 races came and went with Rossi turning on some good entertainment for the crowd.

Finally, the 500s and Mighty Mick Doohan arrived on the track. The crowd (reported to be 100,000) went berserk - it was Doohan crazy. When he won the race so convincingly, half the crowd ran to the pit area for the presentations; this was something to be seen.

Poker Run

The Poker run organised by Lester Martin and Bernadette Reilly was held on 8 November through the hills. We also had our second social/video night at the Brecknock Hotel.

The club is again participating in the annual toy run on Sunday, 13 December to help under-privileged kids. We will meet at Glenelg and ride among the thousands of bikes to Hahndorf, unload the toys and ride to the Echunga oval for a club barbecue lunch. Queries regarding this event or any other club matters should be directed to committee members.

Contacts:	PRESIDENT	Jim Andrew (Adelaide CIB)
		Ph: 8207 5128 or 015 717 360
	VICE PRES	Bud Abbott (NCA)
		Ph: 8217 6335 or 0419 860 549
	COMSEC	Damien Vears (STAR Division)
		Ph: 8207 4129 or 0418 799 006
	TREASURER	Greg Trickett (STAR Division)
	SECRETARY	Mick Klose (Parks)
		Ph: 8207 6515 or 0417 830 552
	SOC SEC	Berni Reilly (Transit Division)
		Ph: 8303 0500 or 0418 804 552