As the 1950’s drew to a close with motor cars having taken over completely from motor cycles and the club was gaining new young members with cars and also still had some very active older members. The club also had several members who had businesses and gave additional support to the club. A very large range of trophies was available and most of the original ones were solid silver.

The 60’s were to see a lot of changes which really enhanced the overall activities of the club. Motoring was still pretty cheap as was petrol. You could use your car for local car rallies and not need extra car insurance. Cheap cars were available for a bit of tuning and then charging around fields for off road events. Also a lot of members were very capable in repairing cars when problems arose with some actually owning garages. An expensive car was not essential, but it helped, since the main thing was to have good fun.

The club was organising car rallies, autocrosses, driving tests, treasure hunts and social events.

Driving Tests - Sunbeam Rapier	Autocross Ford Anglia

The club Annual Dinner Dance was now being held at Overstone Solarium and the 1961 ticket cost the princely sum of £1. And it was the best night of the year!

Move to the Unicorn Pub

In the early 60’s the club moved to an upper room at the Unicorn pub in Rushden. Some of the younger members set up a 4 lane Scalextric track which could be left assembled between meetings. As with too many of the club activities it has been very difficult getting pictures of the activities. No mobile phones then!

The Unicorn

As has happened to so many of our old pubs they have been demolished or converted into flats, and the Unicorn pub is now flats.

The new navigator

I personally came on the scene in late 1963 having left college but not actually owning a car. I was however very interested in the navigating side of car rallies and after having ridden on several events as the ‘third man’, promotion came and I was taken on as a navigator.

I was somewhat spoilt I guess since the first car I was navigating in was a Ford Zodiac, with driver John Holloway.

John Holloway and Richard Lewis with the Zodiac

The car rallies generally had an average speed of up to 30mph and used cryptic clues to sort out the route. Hence speeds were quite low really – until you went wrong! We were quite a good team and started to win some rallies and consequently received our first award at the next Annual Dinner – as in the next picture.

Richard Lewis and John Holloway - First Award

Control of motor rallies

The club rallies could typically have up to 15 entries so they were not particularly large. However Mr Government had been thinking of all these mad car drivers charging around the country lanes with no control and there was some poor press arising from some of the antics that we got up to – see the next press cutting!

County farmers slam 'maniac' rally drivers COUNTY farmers lashed out last night at "maniacs in high powered cars" who take "part in rallies along country roads at night, often frightening people badly. At the county executive committee meeting of the National Farmers' Union, Mr. B. J. Brodie, of Flore, said: "Old people living alone in cottages along country roads have been frightened to death. "Car rallies are on the increase and it appears that the Midlands area is becoming a centre for it. The cars are very highly powered, the noise is quite alarming, and they are driven round the countryside like a lot of maniacs. "It has even got to the stage when the police have been virtually driven off the roads." Mr. W. R. Hart, of Weston-by-Welland said that for the last four years a rally had been directed past his house every March between 2am and 4am. It was impossible to get any sleep because of the noise. And Mr. A. J. Nosworthy, of Arthingworth, recalled a time when the foreman on a neighbour's farm put a Land Rover across the road after rally cars had driven through two of his hedges and across his wheat. Mr. J. O. Adams, of Watford Village said that after a rally driver had driven through a hedge and a fence on his land he had written to the club and they had sent the driver from London to pay for the damage. Once when Major W. B. Bannister, of Chipping Warden, had someone ill in his house a motor club had taken great care to be quiet at a nearby corner………..

Extract from the newspaper in 1965

Control of Motor Rallies Booklet

The result was a Government document requiring all car rallies with more than 12 entries to be authorised by the RAC (for HMG), and paying the appropriate fee of course. Coincidentally the Northamptonshire Chief Constable at the time was John Gott, who was probably able to prevent the controls being too punitive – he raced MGB sports cars!!

From the point of view of the club where the number of entries was only around 12, then this was a major chore if we ended with 13 entries.

MCAAC emerges

However, in Northampton was a very keen rally navigator named John Smeathers who was a member of the Blackbird Auto Club. John was in fact a paraplegic and although wheelchair based, was a fiendish organiser and navigator.

John came up with an idea that transformed the local motor club activities in the county. In early 1966 John contacted all of the local motor clubs in the county.

A meeting was arranged with 2 representatives of each club and held at the Two Brewers pub in Olney.

From this meeting the Mid Counties Association of Auto Clubs was formed. Everyone agreed that it would be better for each club to organise an RAC authorised car rally in turn and this would lead to bigger entries and cross club competition. 

1966 - The Founding Clubs of the Mid-Counties Association of Auto Clubs MCAAC British Timkin Motor Club Blackbird Auto Club Kettering Car Club Mid Northants Motor Club Nene Valley Motor Club Rushden and District Query Motor Club Wellingborough Motor Club

The MCAAC was almost an instance success. Driven by John Smeathers a range of new events immediately got underway.

The first car rally was held on April 3^rd 1966 and had over 60 entries. I was navigating for a new driver now and in the hot seat of a Ford Cortina driven by Dennis Mobley.

Speaking very modestly we were the winners of this first rally. We also won the second MCAAC car rally but we were thwarted with the hat trick since only coming second in the third rally.

The MCAAC now set up a whole new range of interclub competitions which started with the car rallies but then added autocrosses, hill climbs and then social events with treasure hunts, quizzes and dances.

The wife of the MCAAC chairman presenting an award at the annual dinner in 1967 to Bert Loasby, organiser of the difficult Baldet Rally.

The off the road autocrosses could have up to 100 entries so competition was pretty fierce. The biggest car rally was the Andre Baldet Night Rally. This was a 200 mile night rally and was the one to win. The trophy had been donated to the Blackbird Auto Club by Andre Baldet who owned several local garages.

New championships were set up for rally drivers and navigators and off the road events and eventually for the quizzes.

Each year ladies from the clubs entered a competition to select Miss Mid Counties.

An annual dinner or dance was held and one of the first was at the Salon in Northampton with over 400 members and friends attending. The guest of honour at the Salon Dance was World Champion Motorcycle Sidecar Champion, Will Sparrow. Will is seen in the picture below with various club members.

Dinner at the Salon in 1967

Members of the Query Club also competed for their own trophies, with the best entry on each MCAAC rally also winning a Query Club trophy.

Thus a new and exciting time began for the Query Club and the other member clubs of the MCAAC.

A new clubroom - The Gearbox

One of the new members in the 60’s was Barry Green whose father Derek just happened to be the licencee at the Griffin pub in Higham Ferrers.

At the rear of the pub was an old stable which still had a long manger where the cattle were fed.

Derek made an offer to the club that if we put in a new concrete floor and lighting and some heating then we could use this stable as a clubroom. The club members included builders and electricians and so the conversion was made and the new clubroom was called the Gearbox.

Unfortunately in spite of all of the events that took place there I have no photographs.

The clubroom eventually became the new kitchen for the Griffin and this is seen in the next pictures.

Griffin Inn	Gearbox Clubroom

The Gearbox was used for meetings and a whole range of social events including New Years Eve parties.

Rushden Carnival

The club had been involved with Rushden Carnival since 1931 in one way or another. In 1967 the club took over organising the carnival parade. With the advent of motor cars it was much easier to put entries in the parade. No health and safety concerns in those days and the parade just set off without any road closures to worry about! The crowd was encouraged to throw coins at the floats – much too dangerous now!!

In 1964 the club put 6 cars in the parade. These would charge up and down and frequently grab ladies from the crowd. The parade started from Glassbrook Road and ended at Spencer Park. In later years it started and finished in Hall Park.     

St Querian School for Girls
Carnival Capers - Typical entries by the club.

Thus as the 60’s drew to a close the club was pretty much at its peak of activity, which was now all built around motor cars.

In addition to the car rallies, off the road events and social events with both RDQMC and the MCAAC the club also published a monthly magazine called Gear. Competition between clubs was very keen and we had all met a lot of new friends. The RDQMC annual dinner at Overstone Solarium had 250 guests and had to be limited in numbers.

A busy decade also for the author who was MCAAC chairman in 1967 and RDQMC chairman in 1969 but all very enjoyable.

However things were getting much more expensive and many members were now getting much older.

 Richard Lewis 2025