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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.

Our first social event of the year, as always, the very popular, Dinner Dance is coming up on Friday 24th Febuary.

Als always we will be at Mitton Hall Whalley BB7 9PQ.

Welcoming glass of Fizz, 3 Course Dinner, Dancing, Raffle and Prize Presentation. Get together with fellow enthusiasts to welcome the 2023 season of motoring events.

Tickets only £45.00 please contact Martin Wylie martin.wylie@talktalk.net
https://lancsautoclub.com/

Tickets are selling out fast so please contact Martin now.

Wow the Club is now 120 years old!

Starting out in 1902 as the East Lancashire Automobile Club the club was to become the second oldest motor Club in the UK. Other clubs may claim earlier roots but the LAC (the ‘East’ was dropped after a few years) has a continuous history.

The Club has organised events from it’s inception with ‘reliability trials’ being the initial offering to members. These events were quickly followed by Sprints and hillclimbs before the first world war. After the war rallies became the main focus. Following the second world war the Club continued with rallies organising some of the biggest events in the UK including the Morecambe Rally. LAC members earned a reputation in international rallies in Europe. In the 1960’s hillclimbs and sprints became the main focus with events like the Tholt-y-Will Hillclimb on the Isle of Man and sprints at Woodvale and later Oulton Park. The Club also played a major role in both organising the Rally of Great Britain and running stages on the event usually at Whinnlatter in the Lake District. A ‘new’ event, The Manchester to Blackpool Veteran Vintage Car Run (a true rally in the sense it had road timing and a special test) became an annual event.

The 1970’s saw a new venture into motor racing with races at the short lived Longridge Racing Circuit near Preston. Sprints and Hillclimbs continued with events at Scammonden Dam, Baitings Dam, Woodvale, Oulton Park and Longridge. Rallies such as the New Year Rally, Demdike and the Manchester Blackpool evolved with changes to national regulations for road rallies. The association with the RAC Rally of Great Britain continued and over the decade the Club ran stages at Holker Hall in the Lake district and North Wales.

The 1980’s saw a continuation in the Club’s Sprinting and Hillclimbing activities with events at Baitings Scammonden, Woodvale and towards the end of the decade 3 Sisters near Wigan. The Manchester to Blackpool lost its competitive element due to further changes in regulations and other road runs including the Coast to Coast were developed.

Moving to the 1990’s the Club changed direction to concentrate on the road runs but sprints at 3 Sisters continued in association with Chester Motor Club. Events we know today such as the St Georges Day Run, Manchester to Blackpool, Coast to Coast Fellsman and Highland either continued or were developed.

The 2000’s kicked off with organising the Sir William Lyons Cantenary event for Jaguar comprising of 5 days of runs with visits to various venues during the week and finishing at Jaguars Browns Lane Factory. Entrants came from around the globe and the Club was proud to show off the attractions of the north west of England.

We have continued to offer members some great social events including the annual Dinner Dance and Prize Presentation with a Sportsmans Luncheon every three years with the highest quality speakers.

Today the Club continues to thrive with an increasing membership both in terms of members and participants. The road events continue to prove popular although this yea the last Manchester to Blackpool was held due to the increased urban sprawl making an attractive route harder to organise. The Club wanted to go out on a high and we believe all who took part had a great event to remember.

The Highland has been superceded by the Border Rievers event and plans are afoot to replace the Manchester to Blackpool. A new concept has been to jointly organise events with other Club’s to widen the number of entrants and organisational team.

The Club is proud to have been part of the organisation ad running of the second ‘closed road stage rally’ in England so perhaps a return to the Club’s roots may be an idea for the future.

In the meantime the Club had a get together at The Cafe Lazio in Samlesbury to celebrate 120 years and members brought along their cars for others to appreciate. Sad news during the day with the passing of the Queen was recognised with a minutes silence lead by the Club’s President, Eileen Dyson. The event proved a great success and some of the pictures taken by Mike Wood at set out below.

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.

This weeks Classic Car Weekly has a two page spread and report on our St Georges Day Run. Some great pictures of the entrants and their wonderful cars.

Many thanks to all who took part and special thanks to the marshals and officials who made it all possible.

We have now posted many of the pictures from the event in our Gallery Section.