Author: Chris Lee

LAC Coast to Coast July 2023

Well it had to happen eventually. After over 30 years running the event we managed to coincide with the monsoon season in Yorkshire!

It might be worth describing the Lancashire Automobile Club’s Coast to Coast. It is a Touring Assembly for Vintage, Classic and Cherished cars starting from the west coast and finishing on the east coast. Originally it ran from Blackpool to Scarborough but as we change the route every year to a lesser or greater extent we eventually exhausted the options and moved to a start from Morecambe and latterly a finish just north of Whitby. Normally we aim for around 170 miles with a planned average speed of 24mph. There is a comfort stop mid-morning and a lunch halt where entrants can purchase a pleasant meal. At the finish we have a buffet and hold a simple Concours where the President chooses their favourite car.

This year the start was at the Midland Hotel who make us most welcome. We start at 08.30 with two cars per minute from then on till the entry of 56 cars had all departed. We have to be clear of the sea wall by 09.05 as there is a ‘Park Run’ with over 100 runners coming along the sea wall shortly after.

The run winds its way to Helwith Bridge for a comfort break via Bolton le Sands, Gressingham and Clapham so plenty of roads to challenge the navigators following a ‘Tulip’ style road book.

After a 15-minute break for coffee at Helwith the cars departed towards the lunch halt at The Inn South Stainley just north of Harrogate. Again the route couldn’t exactly be called direct as it took in Halton Gill, Grassington, Summerbridge and Markington. It was as the cars came down from Halton Gill that they ran into a torrent of water with the rain bouncing a couple of feet off the road. Quite a challenge for some of the open topped cars!

The lunch halt had a partially flooded car park and even inside towels had to be deployed to stem the tide. The marshals did a sterling job despite the rain keeping the event running smoothly.

After South Stainley the route when through Boroughbridge via Wormald Green and then northeast past Byland Abbey and Wass Bank to Helmsley. From Helmsley the route followed the A170 for a short distance then went north at Wrelton into the Yorkshire Dales. We passed through Cropton Forest to arrive at our penultimate Control outside Scripps Garage in Goathland. From there it was a comparatively short hop to the coast at Sandsend and onto our finish at Dunsley Hall.

We had been worried about parking arrangements at Dunsley but, fortunately, the lawn was dry enough to permit parking of the finishers. Despite the truly awful weather encountered with heavy rain, thunder and lightning almost all the entrants made it to the finish and enjoyed a more than ample buffet.

Eileen Dyson our Club President made her selection from the assembled cars and after considerable deliberations finally chose the immaculate Volvo P1800 of Alastair and Rebecca Scott to receive the President’s Award in the Concours.

All in all a great, if somewhat damp day. All we have to do now is find a route for next year.

 

Chris Lee

PS there is a great video of the day’s proceedings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj2uYF311tw

For the first time in almost 50 years I actually entered a Lancashire Automobile Club road event. Yes after organising for all this time I finaly took a back seat on the day and entered.
My navigator for the day was Glyn Hughes, who is one of our regular marshals on these events so really we were both novices. Yes I know I devised the route (the outward leg being suggested by Nigel Bentley who had researched the original event which was held 120years ago) and prepared the Route and Information Books but neither Glyn or I had actually driven the route.
It was great to turn up with the other entrants taking time to admire their cars and generally chat. I normally drive the Course Car on these events which means get their early, do a lot of work and set off 20 minutes before car 1. no chance to relax or socialise. There were some fantastic cars on the event and the Mini took its place in the paddock fuelled up and ready to go.
We had already received the Route Book and maps so Glyn was clued up on the route so we joined the waiting cars for the start line. Being flagged off by the newly appointed Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire felt very special and we were off. Anthony Taylor had asked if he could ‘follow’ us in the Aristocat as his navigator was, as yet, not confident but in getting into the start line up we got separated and we weren’t sure if he was ahead or behind. We took it slow through Whalley to give him time to catch up but no Aristocat loomed into view so we speeded up assuming he was in front.
The scenery was great and the weather even better with some fine roads taking us along the route trodden by our forebears 120 years ago. Still no sign of Anthony though. Unlike the Course Car (which have to maintain the events average speed to sign on the marshals and help set up controls) we could travel at our own pace and stop to take in views or even wait for missing cars. After some time Anthony hove into view and we continued towards Kendal to pass the refreshment halt on the original run.
When those early members of the North East Lancashire Automobile Club did the original run they simply retraces their steps back to Whalley to complete the 100 mile reliability trial. But current day regulations effectively prevent this as we can’t reuse the same road within six weeks so our route back used roads from other runs staged in the early 1900’s.
So we went south to our refreshment stop on the M6 services at Burton in Kendal who looked after us very well. After a coffee and comfort break we headed for Caton and on to the Trough of Bowland with Anthony in the Aristocat permanently in our mirrors – not going to lose him this time!
The Trough was, as always, entertaining and was followed by scaling Jeffry Hill where we passed one of our entrants dealing with ‘issues’ due to the Climb. Then down through Ribchester and back to the Mytton Fold.
It was great to meet up with other entrants in a relaxed atmosphere and to chat about the day’s event and how we had got on. Then pie, peas and chips to round off the event. Mytton Fold made a great venue but I don’t think the food was up to muster.
Then back out to set off home following a great day. Uh-ho droplets of rain, so I went back into Mytton Fold and announced to all present they had better get their sunroofs closed and roofs up.
By the time I got to the Mini it was gaining in intensity and half a mile down the road it was a monsoon with the road flooded from kerb to kerb. Thank goodness that didn’t happen during the run. As always the Mini took it in its stride and we passed several modern cars which had ‘failed to proceed’ and were stuck after hitting deeper water.
I’ve really got to say two thanks. Firstly, to Steve Woods and Adrian Dean and Carolyn Taylor for all their work putting on the event and secondly to Alan Wilson of Whiting & Wilson, Silversmiths, for the fabulous replica medals of the first Kendal 100, I know they were very well received.

As normal the Lancashire Automobile Club returned to the great setting of Mitton Hall for it’s Annual Dinner Dance.

The guests arrived to a complimentary glass of bubbly courtesy of the Club before sitting down to a fine meal. Steve Woods said grace and then three course meal was served in exemplary fashion by the Hall’s staff. Martin Wylie then proposed the Loyal Toast to the King, Duke of Lancaster, Lord of Man.

The meal was followed by the prize presentation. The first to receive an award was the ‘young’ Mike Wood who appropriately received the Wood Trophy for his lifelong exploits in rallying and his consistent support of the Club for70 year. During this time he has been a member, Committee Member, Chairman, President, Vice President and Director. Somewhere in the midst of all this he has been the prime mover of several events and organiser of many more including driving and social events. He continues to support the Club assisting in the organisation of the St Georges Day Run, LAC Kendal 100 and Coast to Coast.

The next award was the Attwater Trophy. This is for services to the Club and this year’s winner should be known to many regular entrants. Sandra Williams is our entries Secretary and ensures the smooth running of events. Additionally, she can be found at signing on as well as marshalling on our events. How she has fitted this in over the last couple of years with her other duties is a mystery. She has also been working as part of the Covid vaccination programme.

 

Next came the RW Clarke Memorial Trophy. This was presented by Ray’s family to the Club. Ray was an organiser of LAC events for many years plus being the Club Treasurer with a watchful eye on the LAC funds. Our winners this year, Norman and Mary Stansfield, have been involved in Lancashire motorsport sprints several decades ago and have recently entered many of our runs, as well as supporting Social Events, whenever possible.

We moved swiftly on to the Jaguar Trophy. This was presented by Jaguar Cars Plc to the LAC for organising their 100 Centenary of Sir William Lyon`s week-long Rally. It is for us to use annually as we wish the only stipulation is that is should go to the driver of a Jaguar. This year the award goes to David Williams someone who does more than most of us with his crazy Jaguar – It is not only his exploits on our events, but the car is regularly used to make money for Charity in both British   and European events. The XJS does not have a standard, gleaming, paint job, but falls well in line with their title – the fantastic Rat Jag.

The Presidents Trophy came next. Our President, Eileen Dyson, has free choice on this one and she chose the Club Chairman, Martin Wylie, for all his hard work over many years supporting and promoting the Club. As an additional surprise for Martin he was also granted Honorary Membership by the Club.

Our premier award The Peter Collins Trophy was not awarded this year as we like to keep it for someone very special not only for the way they take part in motor sport but also the manner in which they do it. The assembled multitude were asked to get their motors out and do something special this year so the award can be presented next year.

However, our last year`s winner: we now thank Andrew Wareing who has presented the Club with an original Programme for the 1958 Silverstone Daily Express Race at which Peter won this glorious trophy. The Programme must always stay inside the Trophy for others to enjoy.

Some of the names in the Programme are iconic, Moss, Hill, Hawthorne, Salvadori, Innes Ireland, David Piper and a host of other international motorsport names.

But, there is also one named driver in the Sports Car Race, again alongside all those same names, Mossy, Hill & Co, who was local to here – that name is John Horridge.  He was driving a Lister Bristol, which interestingly, was raced in the sixties by our own Anthony Taylor.   We are delighted to once again have John`s son, Nick Horridge, a regular attendee at our events, with us tonight.  Nick was asked to stand and take a bow!!

With their meal settled the evening moved on to dancing and general socialising before the raffle was drawn with some great prizes. Proceeds from the raffle will be going to charity.

After this more dancing was the order of the evening until late.

A great event special thanks to Carolyn and Eileen for the organisation at to the members present for making it special.

 

 

 

As you know the Lancashire Automobile Club organises several road runs (known as touring assemblies) every year. These are non competitive events taking in some of the finest roads in the north of England and further afield.

Several people have asked how the route directions are given. Well the answer is we use several formats in what we call Route Books. These range from simple written directions, tulip Road Books and Navigational directions.

Leaving the latter aside (these are used only on the Fellsman event and that has alternative Route Books for those not comfortable with full navigation) the normal route book is the Tulip style as used on the St Georges Day Run and Coast to Coast.

Please click on this link to see a Route Book from a previous event.

St Georges Day Route Book Jan

As you can see the Route Book has a number of columns going from left to right we have:

Total Miles – distance from last Control

Inter Miles – distance between instructions. we tend to use the previous tenth of a mile rather than going to the next full tenth so 3.76 miles would be shown as 3.70 rather than 3.80. This is because we think you should tell you to look out for a junction a little before  rather than after it!

Diagram – this is the famous ‘Tulip’ it is simply a pictogram of the junction you enter from the blob at the bottom and leave by the arrow (think of the blob as the tulip bulb and the arrow as the flower any other roads are shown as leaves). So to turn right at a crossroads the pictogram is shown as a cross with the blob at the base and the arrow to the right. If there were traffic lights we would have a little picture of a traffic light or if there was a landmark (normally a pub) we would show it’s location as a little black rectangle, the landmark would be named under Location.

Location – place name could be the location of a control, name of a landmark or the name of a village the route passes through or (if in a box) the location of a place name sign. The last is useful as it can confirm you are on the right road after a complex junction without you travelling to far in the wrong direction or simply to reset you mileage after a long road section to enable finding the next junction easier. We also show Stop and Give Way Signs

Instruction – this is the full written direction for the junction. So in the case of our crossroads the Instruction would be “Turn right at Crossroads” (if there is a signpost we would include that as well so that could be Turn Right at Crossroads SP Mellor).

The whole idea is that we don’t want entrants to get lost so that can really enjoy the day.

We often also have a Route Information Book which tells entrants something about the places they drive through on the event. You can read these on the day or save them for later. See this link

St Georges Day 2019 Route Information

Hope that makes things a little clearer and perhaps we will see you out on one of our events in 2023

Lancashire Automobile Club (1902) Ltd.

Thought you might like to see the Certificate which we recieved for our donation to the NSPCC the chosen charity of the FBHVC for this years Drive it Day.

Many thanks to all who took part and enables us to make this donation.