Having pretty much settled on Orange as our first choice for the next Nationals, today we (Geoff, Alex, John and I) headed west to visit the town.

We'd previously been through on our way to Canowindra (and of course had a club run here in 2003 to Gnoo Blas), but this time the plan was to meet with some of the important locals, get some accommodation underway and get the vibe of the place.

Alex was also armed with his camera to get some photos of everything we were evaluating, so they could be included in our presentation to entrants when we go to Mt Gambier. 

We met first with Denis Gregory, from the Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club. Denis is heavily involved in the annual Gnoo Blas Classic, and has lots of local contacts. It was at this meeting that we first discovered that the Australian Touring Car Championship was going to be celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2010. If the facilities in the town and the friendliness and helpfulness of everyone in Orange wasn't enough, this was the clincher: Phillip Island had the FE Anniversary, Mt Gambier was going to have the FC Anniversary. But here was a perfect 'theme' for our event.

From there we went around to the Tourist Information Office to meet with the staff there, and let them know what we were planning and see what assistance they could give. Again, they couldn't be more helpful, and had 150 Tourism "goodie bags" ready for us to collect. We were getting a really good feeling about this.

Then it was time to get in the car again and have a bit of a drive around the town. We had another look at the race-track, visited Wade Park Showground, and then started checking out the motels.

By this stage a stop-over in the Orange Bowling Club for a counter lunch was a welcome break. 

As it's on the outskirts of town, we dropped Denis back off at his car with many thanks for being so generous with his time, and headed out towards Turner's Vineyard. It's definitely the spot for the Nats HQ if we can get it. So much space! And how about that wine-tasting area? The entrants are gonna love that!

So armed with about a hundred photographs and a lot of food for thought, we headed home again. Now we're getting serious.