Peterborough Motor Club

History

The Peterborough Motor Club was formed back in 1950 by motoring enthusiasts in the surrounding Peterborough area to provide sporting opportunities for its members.

After nearly 60 years - it is still providing events at the grass roots level for everyone with an interest in motor sport. It has talks, quizzes and social evenings at its monthly club night.

Social

The Club has a new meeting venue, where we will be meeting generally on the second Monday of each month. We will be putting on various events during the year, such as a treasure hunt, a BBQ, a 'Great Egg Race' and having various speakers and video shows. We are also planning some outings during the year to places such as the Newark Air Museum, and the Shuttleworth Collection.

Details are on our calendar which are published on this site (or download our Newsletter - "Exhaust notes").

Trials

The Club runs three National sporting trials during the year, starting with the Pollard Trial in February, followed by the WARCO Trial in September and the Johnson Trial in November. These attract around 30 contestants from all over the UK, and are rounds of the MSA Trials Championship. The sites are all within 50 miles of Peterborough, and use a selection of quarries, embankments and small valleys, there being a shortage of big hills in the area. The cars are specially built to the Sporting Trials regulations and run a variety of engines producing up to 200 bhp. They are very light and open to the elements, being designed to carry a driver and a 'bouncer'. They are not allowed a limited slip differential, but have 'fiddle' brakes, and are able, with skill, to climb surfaces that have to be seen to be believed. It is a not-too-expensive sport that puts the emphasis on driver skill, rather than money.

Track Days/Sprints

For many years the club has hired a circuit for a practice day, affording several hours safe spirited driving on one of the countries most interesting circuits, for club members and invitees, using anything from shopping diesels to full race machinery.

This has been subsidised for club members from income derived from other events.

However, the Club is now moving towards organising a Sprint, in conjunction with the RAFMSA, and their current 'speed challenge' series run at Barkston Heath in Lincolnshire.

This is available to a vast range of machinery and ages, and provides competitive sport at a very attractive price for the young, and not-so-young.

Silverstone

This was an annual event for the club which had been going for over 50 years. The circuit was hired by the club and up to ten races were provided in a day with practice in the morning, and 8, 10 or 12 lap races in the afternoon. This involves a huge amount of organisation as anything up to 250 competitors needed to be catered for during the day.2008 was our last year organising this event, as changes in the club racing calendars have become more biased towards championship events, which now need an earlier commitment by circuits and organisers, a commitment that Silverstone has not be able to give to organising clubs, such as ourselves. However the club has earned an enviable reputation for putting on events which are recognised as being some of the best run, and value for money, club racing events available in the UK, and has a wealth of experience available to other organisers and competitors.

Timing

The club has had a dedicated timing team in the past, who have provide the expertise and usually the equipment for a large range of sporting activities.

These were mostly sprints at various courses in the south east, however the team has helped out at the London Marathon and the Barcelona Olympics.The timing process usually involves setting up all the timing beams and associated wiring and computers, testing the system, then providing accurate timings for full and part course participation of the competitors.This is a fascinating field for those interested in providing support at many varied events at minimal cost to themselves.

Currently, only equestrian events are being timed as no new members are taking on the timing challenge.