Torquay Rotary hits brakes on motor show

ORGANISERS have reluctantly called off the coming Rotary Motor Show in Torquay but hope car enthusiasts will take part in an alternate virtual event instead.

Motor show committee member Greg Plumridge said the committee made the tough call last week to cancel the annual event, which was next to be held on the Torquay foreshore on February 14, 2021.

“This has been a difficult decision to reach,” he said, citing three main factors:

• The uncertainty of when the COVIDSafe Summer guidelines would allow the gradual return of free-standing public events of the size required to enable the motor show to take place
• The inability to fully control public access to the motor show site, and thus crowd numbers, and
• The difficulty in meeting the COVIDSafe requirements of the public events framework, including attendee limits, density requirements and recording of information on all attendees to assist in contact tracing should it be required, including where possible the time people arrived and left.

While the news was disappointing to everyone in the club and would severely affect the club’s fundraising abilities, Mr Plumridge said not all was lost.

Instead, the motor show committee is proposing to run a Virtual Motor Show for 2021, similar to the just-concluded Pets on Parade competition, which attracted more than 50 entries.

“Lesley has done a great job building a template that can quite easily be reconfigured for this type of fundraising event,” Mr Plumridge said.

“Plus, we have some left-over trophies from previous shows which we could award to a much-reduced number of class winners.

“Hopefully, being from ‘the year there was no show’, these 2021 trophies should be highly sought after and will attract a good number of entries, and corresponding fundraising dollars.”

The Virtual Motor Show is proposed to run for two weeks, from February 1-14.

“Fortunately 2020 saw the introduction of our Great Ocean Road Cruise, which for 2021 we plan to expand into more of an old-school car trial style event to encourage a greater involvement of car owners to get their cars out and take a cruise,” Mr Plumridge said.

“It is intended to be an unofficial event with no entry fee, with individuals to simply drive the same route – probably inland to Lorne and return along the Surf Coast at a similar time.

“They will be able to download a page of questions to answer and have their page stamped at some checkpoints along the way.

“They will be able to drop their pages off in Torquay on their way home, with a prize or trophy awarded for the best correct page.”

He said the motor show committee hoped the Surf Coast Corvette Club would assist in the mechanics of the cruise.

“While we are disappointed the show won’t be happening in 2021, we believe what we are proposing will still enable us to raise funds for our club, while maintaining the continued involvement of the event from our usual supporter base and sponsors.”