The Club Committee had a few quite a fiery meetings to decide whether to accept Jeff Kelly’s proposal that HSV vehicles be allowed into the club. One view was that the club should be kept exclusive to HDT built cars, and the other was that it should be opened to include HSV cars, as members would probably purchase HSV cars when they wanted to replace their HDT’s.
After hotly debating this all year, the Committee put to the Annual General Meeting two motions. The first being that HSV special build commodores only (and not HSV modified Barinas, Camira’s etc) be accepted into the Club and the second to introduce an Associate Membership for members who no longer owned a qualifying car.
These issues were not agreed until February 1989 when it was agreed to introduce an Associate Membership for members who sell their HDT’s and to admit owners of HSV vehicles as Associate Members as well.
A $25.00 joining fee was for new memberships was established and a “Club Championship” was launched with a registration fee of $20 per member. Points were accumulated from social, motorsport and show events however this initiative was phased out the following year.
The Nationals held in Sydney were a success with 106 registrants, 42 of which were from interstate. Peter Brock performed the Concourse Judging, and the Axisa family saved the day on the Monday by holding a BBQ at their premises when rain washed the Cryptic trial out.
After complaints about the frenetic pace of club runs, it was decided to break future runs into 2 groups – a “cannonball” group and a more family friendly group with the latter being given an earlier start so all arrived around the same time. The very first time that this was tried it didn’t work as the cannonball group took the challenge of hunting down those who had departed earlier!
Back in the business world, a consortium of Melbourne businessmen bought the HDT name and had plans to move to a new location with Peter Brock retained as a design consultant to build a few Aero’s and then to modify the VN range.
Social Events:
Weekend Away at Taree / Forster (February), “Roman Scandals” Theatre Restaurant (March), Early Morning Run to Shellharbour (April), Mothers day Luncheon at Eschol Park House Campbelltown (May), Weekend Away at Hunter Valley (June), Beachcomber Island Theatre Restaurant (August), Cryptic Trial from Castle Hill (September), Dirty Dicks Theatre Restaurant (October),
Special Events:
Early Morning run to Jenolan Caves (February), Village Grand Prix (May), HDT Nationals (April 1 – 4), Early morning run to Fitzroy Falls (May), Early morning run to Wangi Wangi (July), Club run to Oran Park Touring Cars (July), Club run to Pepsi 250 at Oran Park (August), Weekend Away at Berrebangalo Country Resort (September), Annual Muscle Car Run to the “Top of the Mountain” Mount Panorama Bathurst (September), Early Morning Run Camp McKay (October), Early morning run to Brooklyn (November).
1988 Social Championship Pointscore:
D. Crook (1st 131 points), T. Kelly & S. van Gendt (2nd – 130 points), S. Ashbee (3rd (120 points).
1988 Ladies Championship Pointscore:
S. van Gendt (1st 107 points), F. Axisa (2nd – 80 points), T. Kelly (3rd 30 points).
1988 Driver’s Championship Pointscore:
R. Russell (1st 131 points), M. van Gendt (2nd – 124 points), J. Axisa (3rd 106 points).
Motorsport:
Driver Training Day Amaroo Park (August), Oran Park Track Day’s x 6 (March, April, July, August, November & December), Huntley Hillclimb (September),
1988 Committee: President Jeff Kelly, VP Chris Stott, Secretary Alan Hughes, Treasurer Gary Benson, Social Secretary Tricia Kelly, Sporting Secretary Mark van Gendt, CAMS Delegate Ray Carr, Special Events Director Dave Mathie, Central West Contact Stephen Friend, Wollongong Contact Wally Cardillo.
1988 Club Magazines:
The format of the 1988 Club Magazines changed back from the folded A5 to the earlier stapled A4 format of 1986 and for the first time developed a name for the magazine “Up Front” in the May edition. The covers of the February and March 1988 editions were the same.