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1974

The club started out in September 1974 as the Rotherham College of Technology Students Union Motor Club. At that time, I was a student but also worked there, so I was on hand to give the students union a hand and some continuity, from term to term. The student population included a huge number of motor vehicle technicians, engineers and miners, who invariably had decent cars. I was then an active marshal, but had never competed on anything. However, I was asked by a student to look into the introduction to motor sport at its most basic of grass roots.

I contacted other local clubs for advice on organising a road rally for our students.  I found out that first we had to register as an official club with the RAC MSA, this I complied with. Following an advertising campaign at the college, we had lots of members joining and proceeded to organise our very first 12 car rally. Due to my inexperience, this rally covered almost the whole of Yorkshire on 4 maps and was a Saturday night start. Due to the lack of marshals, all of the time controls were covered by my brother Keith, my then girlfriend and myself, who had to leapfrog each other, to stay one step in front. We were driving faster than the actual competitors and without a navigator.

Meetings were at the Hare and Hounds pub in Wellgate, using the upstairs room decked out for the Royal Order of Buffalo's, a charity organisation started I believe by Fred Flintstone! The meetings were on Thursday nights.

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1975

In 1975, we were approached by the Sheffield University Students Union to compete in a challenge 12 car, 6 crews from each club. They organised the first one. They turned up in the Moggy 1000's and 2CV's, while we had Escort TC's and Mexico's, 1600 Anglia's and other exotica of that period. This gave us all a good laugh at the time. The format of this was the hairy fairy navigation that we have now, it was also timed and plot and bash. The result was, that they wiped the floor with us, taking 6 of the top 7 positions, me and Keith finishing 5th to stop a complete white wash. Who was laughing then?!

As I progressed onto full blown road rallies, with brother Keith on the maps, I gained more experience in the organisational side of things and it wasn't long, before we had our 12 car championship. These 12 cars were using Targa timing and had several code boards out, which at that time weren't illegal! Marshalling was done by competitors bringing along any relatives they could to man them.

I, together with about 4 other crews had started to do the more serious road rallies that were around at that time, the classics being The Dams and Jackson Trophy from S & H MC, Bentleys Rally from One Eleven MC, Morning Star from Border MC and Lindholmes Danum Rally.

 

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1976

By 1976, a large number of the original student members had left the college, but had stayed true to the cause, so it was decided to loose the unwieldy title and just go for Rotherham Motor Club. We had a competition to design a badge, which is still in use today, designed by Mick Hayhurst, a young chap who had joined as a friend of one of the student members.

This same year, we joined the associations, ANCC and EMAMC, an ordeal that had me stand in front of the whole assembly and I had to sell our club, resulting in a vote of members, as to whether or not we could join (a process that you still have to undergo today)!

This year also saw the return 12 car challenge, with the Sheffield Students. Under the initial rules, the organising club dictated the format. So, out came a pre-plot all map reference thrash around South Yorkshire. We won!!l First 6 cars back were ours. Where are your Moggy 1000's and 2 CV'S now. I can say that there were a couple of very miffed students.

The local clubs decided it was time to run a special stage event in the Sheffield area, so Sheffield and Hallamshire, One Eleven and the Sheffield Students motor clubs joined together forming a committee. We were then asked to join. Three members from this club, Graham Wilkinson, Howard Quibbell and I were drafted onto this committee, which only had one representative from the other clubs.

The object was to organise a stage rally within the Sheffield Hallam Radio area, for which the radio station would be its sponsor.  We looked at roads available in steel works, collieries, sewage works and private estates, but we could not get the desired mileage. Several fund raising events had been organised, including the running of a single venue rally at Gamston airfield. This was the Hodgson Stages Rally and run in 1978 and 1979.

After a couple of years, the committee was disbanded and all monies were shared out between the member clubs.

The Thursday meetings had now moved to the Green Dragon pub in Kimberworth, using the upstairs room. We also met there on Sunday nights, following a 12 car rally, which had been held from Saturday night, in order to post the results. In those days, you had to wait and see how you had fared.

The Rotherham Motoring Weekend and Tattoo started this year in Clifton Park, the club had its own stand and we managed to get Bjorn Waldergaads Safari winning Escort on the stand, mixing it with club cars.

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1977

1977 saw the inaugural opening of the race circuit Donnington Park. Our Chief marshal Geoff Norcliffe had arranged for some of us to marshal this historic event. Having had no previous race marshalling experience, we were expected to assist in the field and on crowd control. Unfortunately a lefty footpath association were insisting on walking the numerous footpaths, which criss cross the circuit. This resulted in the meeting being cancelled and making headline news at the time.

Undaunted, the organisers played every card they could and at the eleventh hour, it was back on. The problem now was how to get hold of all of those marshals, who were drowning their sorrows on a Friday night booze up. Geoff managed to rally round the club and we took a larger contingent of marshals than was first envisaged. When we arrived on that sunny Saturday morning, it transpired that 50% of the marshals were missing. Hence, we all became Fire and Flag marshals in an instant or the meeting would not have run. The organisers, Nottinghamshire Car Club were overjoyed.

We completely manned the Donnington Park circuit for a sprint meeting for the NCC later on that year.

We decided it was time to organise our very own event, so I came up with the Kirkby Central rally a road rally using maps 111 and 105. It started at the sponsors premises on Wellgate, Rotherham and finished at the Barnsdale Bar services. The event was very oversubscribed and 70 cars set off, including a couple of Motoring News contenders. The rally was a great success.

1977 also saw the club enter 3 cars on the Tour of Mull a road-come-stage rally on a remote island off the north-west coast of Scotland. Not only did we have three cars, Hugh Smith/Chris Oakes, Ray White and me/Keith, but we also had about 20 marshals. Along with the crowd from Alwoodley MC and Wakefield MC, we drank the only pub in Tobermory dry every night. None of us finished due to stupid mistakes, nothing serious, but if you are not on the road, you don't move!

The Bentleys rally that year, was a particularly snowy affair, our car was out of action, so I elected to marshal. Under Geoff's leadership, we had an eleven control sequence in each half of the event on roads that were almost impassable. A great night, no mishaps and nobody lost! Oh yes and I think we had 2 competitors out as well.

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1978

It was after the Mull experience and the fact that the cars had to conform to stage rally regulations, 1978 saw the start of those three cars venturing into the world of stage rallies. All three managing to get a place on the Dukeries National, a proper forest rally. All three cars finished of sorts, but not in ground breaking places. That year saw a rise in cars entering stage rallies, Clive Nos's indecently quick 1600 Anglia was one of them. We were all averaging a stage rally every 2 months.

We again organised the Kirkby Central rally, this time using maps 111 and 112 and again it was oversubscribed. This phenomenon had nothing to do with our slick organisation, although it was good - in those days all rallies were full within a couple of weeks of the regs being published.

The Motoring Tattoo was moved to Herringthorpe Park and we had a larger stand and arena where we did some autotests as well as some Challenge autotests, with the Advanced Motorists Association and the Driving Instructors Association. This year, we managed to get hold of a full works Opel Ascona 400, to display next to the club cars. We also gave rally rides to members of the public sitting in the passenger seat, but the arena grass was cut up too much and they were not repeated. Health and Safety eat your heart out.

Another venture up to Mull followed that year for Ray and myself, but we couldn't muster up any marshalling support. We both finished, but it wasn't without problems.

Another sponsor approached the club, wanting a road rally to start from his premises, so October that year, we also organised the Motec rally, starting from the auto electrical premises in Parkgate and using maps 110 and 111. This event turned out to be a one off and our last venture into road rally organisation.

After everybody froze their nuts off on last years Bentleys rally, it was found to be better and warmer in the car, so this year, we had 8 entries from this club. 3 rolled, 1 was washed away down stream at Spitfire Bottoms, 2 had engine maladies and 2 finished, including me. At the finish venue, I collated all of the information about our stricken colleagues, from marshals and the organisers and we set off rounding them up and getting the cars back home. Job done in time for Sunday tea.

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1979

1979 just saw everybody getting on with stage rallying, it was the start of the single venue era, mainly on airfields, which allowed you to compete and spectate. This was great, so I decided RMC was going to get a piece of this action. I set about securing a venue for next year.

The Rotherham Tattoo followed a similar format as before, but this time we had a Mini with a left hand drive steering rack in it which caused the wheels to turn in the opposite direction to the steering wheel. We allowed members of the public to drive it round an autotest circuit. We continued to attend these Tattoo's until they ceased in the mid eighties.

We organised the Harrier Stages Rally in 1980, having managed to obtain Hemswell airfield. Using the bomb bays and split lapping, I managed a full 8 mile stage. With a complete reversal in the second half, we managed 10 stages and 48 stage miles. This rally was well received and set us up for future rallies. We started an autotest series, using Clifton Park on grass and the top car park at the Grange Golf Club, for tarmac. These carried on through the eighties and into the late nineties using a car park at Rawmarsh. They only stopped due to the lack of suitable venues.

Ray white did his third Tour of Mull, taking 2nd in class and 20th overall. About a third of the club went back to drink the island dry, I mean marshal.

We had always up to this point marshaled the big events like the Yorkshire International Mintex-National Breakdown etc and the RAC, but now a new toy was on the horizon - radio's. As a club, we bought into this fairly quickly. It was warm and dry and at that time, you got the best vantage point. At one point, we had up to 8 radio cars out on events, using old modified Cambridge and Westminster radio's, which had been dumped from our local buses. The range was good, the clarity was good and you ended up with a flat car battery!

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1980's

The 1980's just saw everyone get on with things. 1981, 1982 and 1983 saw the Harrier rally at Lindholme airfield. The 1984, 1985 and 1986 rallies were at Kirton Quarry, where as was the nature of this club, we weren't happy to accept the boundaries we had to work in, as other clubs had done before.  We hired a JCB and opened up another little loop in an adjacent field. As the quarry became rough, the entry numbers dwindled and it was decided to drop the event.

The weekly club meetings now moved to the Squash Club on the New World complex at Kimberworth. Again on Thursday nights we started doing table top rallies and had Scalextric nights.

The 1983 event at Lindholme airfield saw us pioneer a computer results service, courtesy of a local man who wanted to use us a guinea pig. This was a huge success, as it freed up more personnel to run the event.

Rotherham MC also became the main organising club for the RAC's Chatsworth stage, under the leadership of Derek Booth. We were instrumental in setting up and the key marshals posts. With the advent of pace notes, we even had to set up for the recce on the previous Wednesday or Thursday. Club member Ray White competed on several RAC Rallies in his Lada doing very well for himself.

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1990's

The late eighties and early nineties saw the club organise several track days, initially at Cadwell Park and lately at Blyton airfield. These events kick started the likes of Richard Johnson and Steve Emms to go national in their quick Vauxhalls. Steve and Richard Pashley were out winning road rally championships, but the number of competitive crews died out by the end of the nineties.

The meetings moved to the Mason's Arms, Thorpe Hesley during the nineties and yes, the piano player was there then!

Christmas do's were also brilliant then, most of them were fancy dress, the costumes having to be made by the member. We even had one of these do's at the Whiston Parish hail. It was a pie and pea supper, but as the hall did not have any catering facilities, Ray White brought his mobile catering van and parked it outside, where we queued up for our supper. These events were also the awards nights, I have no idea how they became so late in the year.

This is just a potted history of some of the highlights of this club. I did a similar article for Steve Pashley several years ago, but due to a leaking roof in my garage, a lot of boxes containing original records, was destroyed, so this is purely from memory. There will undoubtedly be some events I have missed and will remember when the right stimulus is engaged!

 

Dave