“A meeting was held in the Committee Room, Townhall, on Tuesday 26th June 1928, for the purpose of forming a Motor Club in Enniskillen. It was decided that the Club be known as the ‘Enniskillen & District Motor Club', membership to be open to motorcyclists and car owners. The Secretary was instructed to apply for affiliation to the Motor Cycle Union of Ireland (Ulster Centre)”.

The Club functioned essentially as a Motor Cycle Club, organising a Reliability Trial, a Whist Drive and a Social Run to Omagh in its first Year, - 1928.

The first Annual General Meeting of the Enniskillen and District Motor Club was held in the Committee Room, Enniskillen Townhall on 12 December 1928, with an attendance “of almost 40 members”. A committee was appointed as follows: - “J.E. Collum HML (President); R. Nawn (Chairman); A.M. Ovens (Hon. Secretary); J. Millar (Asst. Secretary); J. Harris (Hon. Treasurer); Messer's. Jeffers; Watson; McFarland; Brownlee”.

The Club ran its first Motor Cycle Road Race in June 1929. The course comprised 14 laps over the Mossfield / Sydare / Ballinamallard circuit, - a total of 87 miles, and had an entry of 23 riders. In 1931 the race was extended to 16 laps, and became known as the ‘Enniskillen 100'. The Club continued to organise the race up until about 1953, by which time only 2 local riders were taking part. This lack of local support combined with the increasing demands being made by the M.C.U.I. to continually improve safety standards, lead to a decision by the Club to cease organising the race.

However, the Club was by now organising car navigation rallies and driving tests (autotests), and continued to do so until the Club finally disbanded in about 1960.

Enniskillen Motor Club .

In December 1963, a small number of local enthusiasts, under the driving force of John Moffatt (Nicky's father) and George Balfour, (assistant Clerk of the Petty Sessions), met in the old Imperial Hotel (the site now occupied by Carefree Travel), to consider the possibility of forming a motor club. The outcome was the calling of a General Meeting in the Townhall in January 1964 to form the Enniskillen Motor Club. The membership fee was set at 10 shillings (50p), and the total membership numbered 12. The original committee consisted of David Woolfenden (Chairman): George Balfour (Secretary): Eric Scott (Treasurer): Austin Frazer (Competition Secretary): Dick Smith: Billy Crooke: Forster Richardson and Brian Zebedee.

During its first year, the committee held its monthly meetings in the Erne Café, - the site now occupied by Eason's, and organised 3 navigation rallies and 2 driving tests (autotests). Finances were difficult in the first year, so each committee member personally contributed towards the purchase of a Rally Championship Cup, engraved “The '64 Committee Cup”, which is still the club's premier challenge trophy.

Highlights from the ‘early' years of the Club.

• 1965 The first dinner dance and prize giving was held in the Valley Hotel, Fivemiletown.
• The committee changed to the Railway Hotel for its monthly meetings.
• E.M.C. became only the second club in the province to organise an Autocross. The venue was Stephen Crowe's field at St Angelo.
• The club produced a new club magazine, “WHEELSPIN”, under the editorship of Billy Campbell. Material was typed on to a waxed stencil, and manually copied on a Gestetner duplicator.
• 1966 At the AGM, Billy Jackson became the club's first President; Forster Richardson, Chairman and Austin Frazer, Secretary. The committee was supplemented by 3 karting enthusiasts, - Rev. McMurray-Taylor, Tommy Crowe and Eric Pearson.
• The club formed a Kart Section, holding races at St Angelo Airfield, - initially on the area now occupied by Fisher Engineering, and then later on, the area behind that, now occupied by Balcas. Committee members made a roadway from the track, through a field and accessing on to the Irvinestown road. The club ran 3 races in their first year, one of which was a round of the Ulster Kart Championship.
• In 1966, the club organised 3 kart races; 3 driving tests (autotests); 4 navigation rallies; 3 film shows; novelty driving tests on the airfield; a table-top rally; and concluded the year with the by now, annual dinner-dance and prizegiving.
• The club's round of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship, - the ‘Erne Safari' rally, was an all-night 250 mile event. Starting at T.P.Toppings garage at 9.00pm., competitors had to complete a 180 mile navigation section, followed by a supper stop in the Manor House Hotel, then 25 miles of forestry special stages, including the Lough Navar Scenic Drive (gravel surface). The prize for the highest placed non-N.I. resident was 600 cigarettes!!
• 1967 At the AGM, Rev. McMurray-Taylor was elected Chairman; Austin Frazer, Secretary; and Dick Smith commenced what was to be a very long term as Treasurer.
• The Erne Safari Rally attracted an entry from Alec Poole, the Dublin-based B.M.C works racing driver, driving the new M.G.1100. The event crossed the border at Pettigo for a 2-hour navigation section in S.W. Donegal.
• 1968 Terry Harryman, writing in ‘Ulster Motorist' magazine, reviewed the individual rounds of the N. I. Rally Championship. The ‘Erne Safari Rally' topped the list, scoring 55 points from a maximum 60, beating the Larne M.C ‘Texaco Starlight' Rally by 1 point. EMC was allocated 10 points out of a possible 10 for both ‘organisation' and ‘results'; 9 points each for ‘route', ‘special stages', and ‘officials', with 8 points for ‘extras'. It was a good review also for 2 EMC members, - Cahal Curley and Austin Frazer, who won the Championship for the first time.

Highlights from the ‘70s and ‘80's

• 1972 Dungannon, Omagh and Enniskillen Motor Clubs combined forces to run the highly successful ‘DUNOMEN' RALLY – an 18-stage daylight rally in the forests of Tyrone, Derry and Fermanagh.
• 1974 Enniskillen Motor Club won the Club Team award on the Circuit of Ireland and 2 of its members, Cahal Curley and Austin Frazer, won the event overall.
• 1976 Enniskillen Motor Club registered as a Limited Company under The Companies Act 1960.
• The Club obtained sponsorship from Ballycassidy Sawmills to run the ‘PERMAPOST RALLY', a round of the new Belfast Telegraph Northern Ireland Special Stage Championship.
• 1979 Billy Coleman from Co. Cork, and former British Rally Champion, drove the Ballycassidy Sawmills Mk.2 Escort on the Permapost Rally.
• 1986 Barry McGuigan, former World Featherweight Champion, competed on the Lakeland Stages Rally, navigated by Cahal Curley, driving Sidney Meeke's rear wheel drive Ford Orion. Plum Tyndall (RPM), hosted a rally chat show in the Manor House Hotel on the Friday evening, with Barry the star guest. The event attracted massive national media attention.
• 1989 The Club's 25th anniversary was celebrated in the Killyhevlin Hotel in great style, with 250 members and friends being entertained by a cabaret show and a 9-piece showband.

Update

Since its formation in 1964, Enniskillen Motor Club Ltd. has always been one of the most active motor clubs in the Province, having organised a wide variety of motor sport events over the years. Indeed in 2002, it was the only club organising events counting as rounds in 4 different N. Ireland Championships.

Undoubtedly, the pinnacle of the club's history, was its organising of the ‘Fisher Engineering Summit 2000 Rally' in 2000. This was a one-day, one-off, Millennium event held in the Sean Quinn quarry complex. It was a high-profile special stage rally counting as a round of the ‘Toshiba Computers Irish Tarmac Rally Championship', and included 2 former world rally champions in its entry. The late Bertie Fisher played a key role, not only in the organisation of the event, but almost exclusively in promoting the event to raise funds for cross-border charities. Largely due to his efforts, £50,000 was raised for local charities.

In recent years, the club has increased the number of members on its committee. This has resulted in an excellent balance of older, experienced members and young, enthusiastic members of both genders, all of whom are very committed and motivated in carrying on the excellent tradition of organising top-class motor sport events in the west of the province.

Austin Frazer.

Club President and Founder Member

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