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Bay Rodders Tauranga

Bay Rodders 2011 News

Bay Rodders 45th Anniversary Formal Dinner

Mount Maunganui Cosmopolitan Club was the venue for the Bay Rodders 45th Birthday formal dinner, with a packed crowd of current and former members and friends of Bay Rodders...

The night was quickly underway with a welcoming speech from our current Bay Rodders President Deano Anderson, looking very handsome I must say...

Life members Terry Furness (original president in the red shirt below), John Stevenson, Dave Gibson and Rob Gibson were recognised as having started Bay Rodders exactly 45 years and 20 days ago. From a small meeting of eight at Terry's house the Eastern Bay Rod and Custom Club (later to be known as Bay Rodders) was formed, with Gary Hills as it's Treasurer, Keith Elliott as it's secretary. I had to laugh as we were told their meetings and mail was sent to their head quarters - Keith's parents place - until they could afford a PO Box, man haven't we come a long way from those humble beginnings....

The Anniversary cake was made by Connie of "Karmic Kupcakes" to celebrate Bay Rodders 1966 to 2011, and was served to all for dessert, thank you Connie as always it was delicious ...

Dave Gibson, Terry Furness and Rob Gibson cutting the cake ....

Carl Bonaface was our guest speaker and kept everyone entertained with his hilarious and amazing stories about his experiences with Nitro Funny Cars. Also a big thanks to Carl, his team and Castrol for the prizes supplied on the night...

In the room where also two Nitro Funny cars (below), the one on the left was the original Hogan Berry Nitro Funny car found in Auckland, but it was too chopped to changed to put it back to the original. It was the first New Zealand car to run 200mph and Brett Wilson was the first to run a 6 second. It is one of Karl's goals to hand it back to the Hogan Berry Foundation. The car on the right was taken from the same mould.

The Anniversary Mystery Run done that day was organised by Leanne Milne (left) and Lynne Paton (right below) with their supportive husbands Steve and Garth respectively and others members of the club. These two took to the stage to let us know how well (and how badly) we had all done on the Mystery Run. They then asked Deano to draw the winner out of a bucket, so your points collected on the run really meant nothing - excellent!

The triumphant winner was Rob Gibson "Gibbo"....

Who of course relished the opportunity to received his Castrol Jacket and more importantly a kiss on the cheek from each of the girls ...

Our trusty newsletter editor Kim McNaughton has it the dirt all on film ...

That evening Deano presented Lynne Paton with flowers for all the work she had put into planning the day and evening's event, and as you can see below Lynne is always very grateful for flowers.

Following the formal speeches everyone was encouraged to come up and take the microphone, and tell stories ...

Terry Mulqueen (below) and his business originally in the Mount on Hewletts Road, has been a supporter of Bay Rodders since it first began and came all the way from Sydney Australia, to be with Bay Rodders to celebrate their birthday...

Claire Anderson's took the opportunity to share her passion for Bay Rodders with her husband the President Deano Anderson ...

After the speeches and Bryan getting control of his fear of broccoli and mushrooms, the usual antics began...

This gentleman stunned and amazed all of us with his ability to drink upside down on his head ...

The Cuzzies playing with the Nitro Funny Cars...

Throughout the evening everyone had a go at racing on the Castrol Simulated Staging game; it was a blast watching people trying to beat each others reaction times, which I might add got worse as more alcohol was consumed and the night went on, and how you just couldn't drag some members away from the game....

Here's a shot of Dennis Hills winning with 0.004 before times were recorded and to much alcolhol was consumed!

At the end of the evening the winner was Chris Dawson with 0.009 - congratulations!!!

What a fantastic day and night, I know I got to bed at 4:15am but many didn't get to bed until long after me. I'm going to need 12 months rest before the next anniversary - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAY RODDERS!!! Cathi

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