National Rally 2015 was a tremendous success over the weekend of the 20-22 March on the Darling Downs in the very welcoming city of Toowoomba.
The Rally was attended by 118 OzSTOC members and friends with most staying onsite at the well appointed BIG4 Holiday Park.
Although the Rally formally commenced on the Friday evening many members took the opportunity to enhance their NatRally experience and arrive early to truly experience the fellowship of this fantastic club.
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The OzSTOC shop was setup ready for Rally registrations and shop sales by midday Friday by our Shop coordinators PC and Navgirl20 (Pete & Marian).
We had the remaining incorrectly sized Custom OzSTOC Jackets for sale at a reduced prices as well as the release of the NEW OzSTOC Key Ring.
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The shaded common area around the pool was selected as our focal point for the Friday afternoon meet and great with the pool becoming very popular in the afternoon QLD heat for some reason
Members commenced the registration process with some great feedback on the Rally shirts and cloth badges.....unfortunately the Rally pins didn't arrive in time for the event, but we have made a commitment to send them to all who registered when they do arrive.
The bikes and members trickled into the park all afternoon with old friendships and new being experienced all over the park. Nibbles for the group where layed out by the loverly OzSTOC ladies while the boys went to work on tables and chairs......cold drinks on a very warm Darling Downs day that may have contained just a splash of ETOH where now flowing freely as was the friendly OzSTOC banter.
A few members strategically placed their ST's in the common area with varied seating options for members to asses......well done Marcus, Gadget and Baza.
We were fortunate to have Les from Aquagun and Racing from Warwick who is an Earmould franchisee owner , Les attend the Big4 Park and custom made 17 sets of Earmoulds for our members over the Friday night and Saturday morning.
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We had a request from a couple of members directly effected by leukaemia who where participating in the Worlds Greatest Shave to have a head shave with proceeds to the Leukaemia Foundation. JohnnyYTED and WendyL along with Gavo who was running a little late (see his story on the forum) were the driving force behind the event that team OzSTOC supported based on the proposal presented by the trio.
In addition to WendyL and JohnnyYTED we had some others step up to the shears with Tipsy, Lesley, Sulkybear, Davinabus and some bloke we use to call Streak.....now it's more of a Stripe all going under the clippers with some added colour thrown in. With the fantastic support of the attending OzSTOC members we where able to raise just under $1400 for the Leukaemia Foundation.....a big thanks to Elly a local hairdresser for her skills.....
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We had photography for the event being covered by a local photographer Danielle in addition to Beatup (Ian) and Australian Road Rider Editor Mick Matherson our guest speaker for the event with some great pics now flowing in with a little surprise being put together for members over the coming weeks.
After the shave I introduced the Toowoomba 2015 NatRally organising team of WildRose, PC and Streak who gave a brief run down of the Rally, the ride,and the meals at the Rally venue. StinkyPete as National Rally Coordinator was introduced and gave a brief outline of his new role within the club for future NatRally's.
The South Toowoomba Apex club lead by James with a small team did an outstanding job of catering the evening meal and Saturday/Sunday breakfasts at short notice after the prearranged caterers pulled out.....this was this teams first catering function and they did a tremendous job while raising nearly $1000 dollars for their groups charity work.
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The fun and frivolities continued well into the evening all over the camp with members returning to the common area for a full cooked breakfast the following morning and a ride briefing for the day's ride that left the Park at 09:30, the briefing outlined the two destinations for the day, group riding etiquette and emergency strategies if an incident presented. The 160 kilometre ride lead by PC and supported by Wildrose with Sicman, Pockey, Streak and I at the tail end, we also had StinkyPete buried in the middle of the group to support Comms if the group became spread out.
First stop of the day was for morning tea at Nobby's Pub in the small hamlet of Nobby. This town was made famous as it was here that the Dad,Dave and Mayble tails commenced. The Pub had a very impressive display of antique rural memorabilia and served scones and muffins that where the centre of discussion for much of the Rally.
An impromptu group photo out front of the pub then had the group back on the road and heading for the Pub in Leyburn for a light platter lunch and group photo. Leyburn had a sensational outdoor shaded eating area as well as an air conditioned front bar that took the heat out of the day for many.....it was here that the winner of the OzSTOC 2015 Silliest moment award opened his gob to the mass's and sealed his fete into the OzSTOC history book.
The ride back into Toowoomba had our various photographers awaiting the line up of bikes along the ride route with a number of great shots to soon be released.
The return to the Park at 3pm was the que for the First OzSTOC swap meet......members bought along their unwanted bike spares, parts or farkles to be sold, traded or given away to new homes, feed back was very positive and this will become a regular event at National Rallies.
5:30pm was the depart time for the 2 hired coaches to take the attendees to the NatRally dinner and presentation venue Regents on the Lake, the venue provided a brilliant smorgasbord board for the members. The MC duties for the night where undertaken StinkyPete with the first order of business being a toast to a stalwart member and moderator of the OzSTOC forum Whizz (Paul) who passed away last year, the toast was made by Diesel.
It's was now time to announce the winners of the various OzSTOC member awards, this year we had 5 awards to present including "Best Presented ST", "Most Charismatic ST", "Wildcard Award" , "National Rallies Silliest moment" and the prestigious "OzSTOC Member of the Year".
"Best Presented ST" was judged by last years award winner Sicman. Sicman gave a brief outline of what he was looking for in the bike of the year......we allow the previous years winner to select the ST that they believe to be a worthy recipient to give the award the opportunity to be judged from a differing selection criteria each year.
The winner this year was BIKERJIMBOB for his beautifully presented ST1100.
"Most Charismatic ST" is judged by the National Team and award to the ST that is the most charismatic and talked about bike at the event, again this year we looked high and low but came back to the ever present Rhonda the Honda owned by Tipsy.
"Wildcard Award" was put in place of the previous years Longest Travelled award as we believe in gave a far greater opportunity for all members to be in contention and not just the select few who made the mammoth effort to travel from all parts of the compass. The award is judged by the OzSTOC National team and can be for any clearly outstanding reason. This year the award was well deserved by STeveo from NSW for his home made uni-trailer that had the panniers from his recently burnt ST1100 after a fuel fire destroyed the bike completely and nearly STeveo in the process.
"National Rallies Silliest moment" was this year nearly taken out by Streak for embarrassing reason He can explain if he choses, but suffice to say if he he forgot his wife's birthday, wedding anniversary, left the kids at cricket training and to wear clean underwear most days it would be less embarrassing situation.
But this year at the Rally lunch ride after I announced that the OzSTOC swap meet would take place on our return one male member travelling with his perfect pillion in a million took the opportunity to loudly announce to all at the lunch that when they returned to camp his pillion had fifteen minutes to get ready for the swap table......
This award for silliest rally moment went to PC, however Peter wife Marian is believed to have had the last laugh later in the evening......
"Member of the Year"
This is very discreetly judged by the OzSTOC Leadership and Moderation team over events witness over the preceding year......this is not for any single event and is awarded to the member who holds the club, it's members in the highest regard, assist fellow members and upholds the core values in our club.
The very worthy nominee's for OzSTOC "Member of the Year" for 2015 where:
Wildrose (Leo) QLD
Abe (Dave) NSW
Yorkie (Brian) WA
JohnnyYTED (Johnny) WA
Alchemist (Dave) NSW
This year OzSTOC was pleased to award "Member of the Year" to Abe (Dave) from NSW.
Abe has continually supported old members of the club and been very welcoming of new members while being proactive on both the social and technical side of the forum, Dave has assisted many members with hands on maintenance, repairs and research on Bikes. Abe is the RTE Co-Ordinator for NSW and put in place this years RTE calendar for our NSW members.
Abe wasn't in attendance at NatRally due to work commitments and was advised by phone during the evening.
The current OzSTOC Leadership team decided last year that we felt we need to show the appreciation on behalf of the entire OzSTOC club for the tieless work undertaken by Diesel and Streak for getting the club in its current formate to evolve into one of the premier bike specific clubs in Australia. We believe it's undisputed that these two members gave the club it's soul.
So we have implemented a new award into the club, the award bestowed on Diesel and Streak is known as the OzSTOC "Life Membership" award. This is a very special accolade will only awarded occasionally for contributions to the group that extend beyond our conventional awards system.
It was truly a pleasure to present these awards to Dave and Graham and the feedback around the room on the award and the chromalux aluminium presentation certificates was extremely positive.
StinkyPete introduced Pezzz (Mark) from the 2016 WA NatRally organising team, Pezzz is also one of the WA RTE Ride Co-ordinators. I asked Mark to give us a brief presentation on the WA Rally for next year to show members from the Eastern states that the 2016 OzSTOC NatRally would be a fabulous experience.
Pezzz confirmed the selected dates of 11-13 March 2016 and that the NatRally would be Northeast of Perth in the Swan Valley wine region. A big4 park has already been booked for the function.
Just a few of the noteworthy additions to this NatRally to our members is the offer by the local Honda Dealer to ship bikes in crates back to the Eastern state for approximately $500ea......an offer that may well suit the time limited traveller or members concerned about the tyranny of distance. The venue is a short distance from Perth Airport for members wishing to fly in/out to the event and Airport collection can be arranged by the local team.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the WA team plan is the proposal to do a guided ride out with members on the Sunday afternoon and over the next 2 days to showcase to eastern riders and pillions the real sights of the regions in Southern WA.....a plan that was very well received by those at the dinner.
The night continued with the introduction of our guest speaker for the 2015 NatRally Mick Matherson, Mick is the editor for the Australian Road Rider magazine. Mick primarily discussed the Sports Touring market and its future direction. It was a pleasure to have Mick join OzSTOC not only as a guest speaker but attend Rally as a participant of the event, Mick arrived Friday afternoon and had ample opportunity to converse with our members and was snapping pictures for the duration of his stay. A 6 page article on OzSTOC and our National Rally for 2015 is set to appear in the June 2015 issue of ARR due out in May.
The evening continued with members mingling and table hopping with all manner of conversation, it was fantastic as Pockey and I circulated the members to hear all the positive feedback from the attendees that we spoke with on the QLD Rally and the clubs direction.
The following morning presented us a foggy start to the day with considerable storms around parts of SEQ, the decision was made based on the local members knowledge to abandon the mornings ride to Esk based the over night weather and possible hazards along the proposed route.
Some members commenced their journey home while others remained just wandering about the park chatting ST's......little conversations developed all over the Park, this was a very social NatRally indeed.
When we took a head count of members still in the park and decided on an impromptu Pizza night with the 40 attendees......$10 per head had 20 plus gourmet pizza's delivered to our door with much laughter about the pimply faced kid delivering them all on his Vespa. Thanks to Capt Thunderbolt (Nev & Maria) for their hospitality accepting all the gate crashes looking for cover......we all agreed that this was a brilliant get together as most last minute gatherings are....
Monday morning was the que for most of the remain members to make their way towards home.....
Pockey, Saaz and I would like to extend our sincere gratitude on behalf of all the attendees to the Toowoomba team of Leo & Robyn, Peter & Marian and Streak & Teela for the outstanding effort presenting National Rally 2015 to the club.
Thanks to all who made the journey to Toowoomba.....I'm sure you all had a rewarding OzSTOC experience and just a ball of a time.
Cheers
Team OzSTOC
