Radford Autograss Club History – When it all started......

Way back in the early 1960’s six boys whose ages ranged from 7 to 13 years upwards used to spend their Sunday afternoons driving old cars around the field behind their fathers scrap yard. The father were talking about the legendary Phil Rogers SNR who went on to be one of the founder members of Radford Autograss Club. The boys concerned were the sons of Phil Senior, Mike, Tony, Arthur and Phil junior. Also joining them was Martin (Hoss) Fernihough who was Dave Fernihough’s brother and also Pete Bott SNR who currently races now in the Stroud club.
The lads managed to get their hands on anything that ran and would also cut the vehicles until just enough was left to allow the car to go and stay solid to drive. The vehicles mainly used were an Austin 16, A70, 10 Humber Snipe V8 Pilot. All are probably unheard of by many of today’s people. This at the time was done without any parent’s knowledge. All they were trying to do was to drive anything as fast as possible and as children didn’t think about safety.
Martin’s dad Alec heard about them and took pity on them when complaints came in regarding the noise and also one incident happened where a telegraph pole in the middle of the field became as unfortunate target, toppled and hit an electric transformer in the middle of the field. This took out the local electricity supply. As Alec Fernihough had become sympathetic to their cause they were able to move and race on one of the fields on the Fernihough farm. Many people in the villages of Radford and Inkberrow heard of them and it soon became popular.
The older of the boys saw an advert in the local paper stating a stock car race meeting was being held at Grimley Gravel Pits near Worcester (Grimley Raceway as it’s known today). After a lot of pestering and blackmailing the parents found themselves taking a car to the meeting and entering. Much to their surprise they actually won races. Two other jalopies were there and that’s when they really got their racing bug. When they returned home the all decided to get to work with welders, hacksaws, cutting gear, water piping and built the first Radford Jalopy.
Unfortunately they didn’t have anywhere to race properly apart from Alec Fernihough’s field, so after many phone calls to Wales and the surrounding areas they managed to find a club in Hereford. By the end of the season the Radford kids had got four cars, two jags, a Rocket V8 and an old Ford Ten saloon
When the original Brookside Kids had left school and they decided to form their own club and this is when Radford and District Jalopy Club was born.
With this club the Radford boys made their mark. Not only did they gin members and popularity, but they were also a powerful force behind the formation of the West Midland Jalopy League

The name Brookside came from the field they raced on that ran alongside a brook. The official date was 17th October 1967 and 8 High House Drive, Inkberrow was the official club address. The first members were:
Art Rogers R117D Martin Fernihough R208D
Phil Rogers SNR R116D Mick Rogers R13D
Harry Badger R115D
Pete Bott R114D


The original committee were:

Chairman: Phil Rogers SNR
Vice Chairman: Harry Badger
Treasurer: Ron Skinner
President: George Sabin
Secretary: Eileen Booth

These names may still sound familiar to the current day members as we have trophies named after them which are given out as Perpetual Club trophies or raced for at the Worcestershire Championships meeting.

This therefore became the start of one of the most well respected clubs in the Autograss world today.

While we endeavour to make sure that all information is correct regarding Radford’s History on when it all started, we know mistakes and omissions can happen. We do apologise if any information specified here is incorrect or has been missed out. If this is the case then please don’t hesitate to contact Radford Club, where contact information can be found on our “Contact Us” page.