Awarded by his peers, the ‘Royal Order of Rallying’ has only been given to two other recipients in its short history.
Errol joins Craig Porter and Dick Owen of the Brisbane Sporting Car Club as inductees, both of whom have also contributed greatly to the sport in Queensland.
The Queensland Rally Dinner is an annual event, held in the early part of the year following the rally season. It is an evening where competitors can gather to share stories and recognise the achievers in this special brand of motorsport.
132 guests converged on the Broncos Leagues Club in inner-city Brisbane for a night of frivolity and good cheer, and attendees had travelled from as far as Sydney, Cairns, Townsville, Maryborough, Gladstone and Byron Bay.
Although the outright QRC winners had been officially recognised at the CAMS Evening of Champions, on Saturday night the QRC class winners, Clubman Series Champions, Gemini One-make series winners and others were also able to take to the stage to express their thanks.
Attending as a guest in a formal capacity to represent CAMS was the Queensland Office Manager, Milton Brennan.
He was joined by other dignitaries including Alan Stean (Silverstone Tyres), Keith Fackrell (KCF Rallysport) and Margot Knowles on behalf of the series sponsor, City Automotive Group/City Subaru.
For the last couple of years the dinner has sponsored a worthwhile charity, raising money from assorted collection boxes and an auction of motorsporting memorabilia.
This year the organisation chosen was WICEN, the Wireless Institute of Australian Civil Emergency Network.
WICEN, through its Queensland members, has supported rallying in the south-east corner for many years, offering assistance to ensure that event communications are always of the highest possible standard.
Attending on behalf of WICEN were Dave and Shirley Gulley.
The charity auction in the second half of the evening raised many hundreds of dollars for WICEN, with the most sought after item being won by Stewie Reid.
He took home a Ford WRC team t-shirt, autographed by Marcus Gronholm and Mikko Hirvonen. The bidding was fierce for this particular trophy.
A generous gesture was made by 2006 QRC champion driver, Glenn Brinkman, who handed $500 cash to Dave Gulley from WICEN, being the amount of prize money won during the year from City Subaru.
With the evening drawing to a close to allow the gathered party-goers to continue their various debates, and all who supported the evening and the 2006 competition year were thanked.
Special thanks went to Berenice Stratton for almost single-handedly organising the event on behalf of the Rally Panel.
Supporters recognised included:
CAMS
RallySport Magazine
KCF Rallysport
Silverstone Competition Tyres
City Subaru/City Automotive Group
Scania Trucks
Freightliner Trucking
Mark Stacy, Ford Team RS
And
Margot and Simon Knowles
Lyndal Tighe
Del Garbett
Stephanie Linn
The 2007 City Subaru Rally Championship commences on March 31 at Coates Rally Queensland on the Sunshine Coast.
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