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THE RAY MIELS MEMORIAL BREAKFAST RUN
Thanks Lindsay. For those people who did know Ray fairly well this will be old hat
but I guess it is really an explanation of why we have called this breakfast run the Ray Miels Memorial Breakfast Run
Who was Ray Miels, and why do we have a memorial to him ?
Ray was first and foremost a motor mechanic. He served his apprenticeship at Waymouth Motors,
and remained there as a qualified mechanic until they ceased trading in about 1962.
He then went to York Motors for several years as their service manager.
As most of you know, both of these employers were distributors of Chrysler/Dodge products,
and Ray therefore gained a detailed and extensive knowledge of these cars.
On leaving York Motors he was employed as an automotive trade lecturer
at various TAFE colleges until his retirement.
Even after retirement, he did some part-time lecturing for the Motor Trades Association.
How could anyone be better fitted for membership of this club?
Ray and his wife Joy joined the club in 1988, and Joy has remained a loyal member ever since.
She attends the breakfast run as often as she can, and I am pleased to say she is here today
Ray soon became very popular with the members,
and with his knowledge and experience was always willing and able to help and advise
members regarding their restoration work and any mechanical problems they had.
He had a great sense of humour, loved a joke, and was frequently playing tricks on people.
His favourite saying was "trust me", and "Trust me" soon became his nickname.
The problem was, whenever he said "trust me", you knew you couldn't.
I'll give you an example of Ray's sense of humour. Ray and Joy enjoyed going on some of the longer rallies,
and at the end of each day Ray and David Schumacher, who both drove Dodge fours,
would compare notes on how their cars were going and what economy they had achieved.
David would meticulously record his mileage and amount of fuel used, and would say something like
"Mine did 21 miles per gallon today Ray". Invariably Ray would then say, "Oh, did it?
Mine did 22". If David said 23, Ray would say 24. David couldn't work out why Ray's
car was always more economical than his, until one day, with Ray laughing his head off,
David woke up that Ray had been kidding him, had kept no records at all, and had done no calculations.
But David finally had his revenge, on a rally section from Broken Hill to Wentworth,
which had been organised as an economy run for all the rally cars. Drivers were to fill their tanks 0:05:59.000,0:06:03:990 on leaving Broken Hill and refill them under supervision on arrival at Wentworth.
For once Ray refrained from cheating, and provided the organisers with a true record
of the amount of fuel his car had used. But David, wanting to get one back on Ray, stopped
along the way and tipped some extra fuel into his tank from a jerry can. Naturally, at Wentworth
David's car took less fuel than Ray's, and David had his revenge at last.
Ray's great popularity saw him elected to the position of vice-president in 1995, followed
by president in '96 and '97, and vice-president again in '98. Meetings conducted by Ray were
usually light-hearted and enjoyable, with all business matters being dealt with efficiently.
Unfortunately, Ray became seriously ill during 1998, and he passed away on the 22nd of October
of that year. His death was a sad loss to all who knew him, and in recognition of his
excellent service to the club and to perpetuate the memory of his friendly, jovial nature,
the committee decided that the President's Breakfast Run would be renamed the
Ray Miels Memorial Breakfast Run.