John Lightfoot, Chairman of the North Berks Motor Cycle & Light Car Club was presented with the Medal of Honour for his contribution to the ACU and the Trials and Enduro Committee at the recent Annual ACU Awards evening held at the Park Inn Hotel in Northampton.
John Lightfoot first got involved with motorcycling back in 1959 after returning from his time serving for the RAF on national service, joining his local club the North Berks Motor Cycle & Light Car Club in the September of 1959. John continued to ride Trials for a number of years competing alongside his brother in sidecars. Over the years his best result was 3rd in the Southern Centre Championship.
John became more involved with his local club and voted onto the Committee and went on to become Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman, a position that he still holds today. In the late 60s, John got more involved in organizing events, eg Southern Experts Trial (x2), Centre Championships Trial, and in 1966 the NBMCC got involved in organizing Grass Track race meetings, starting with Centre championships and Inter Centre Championships and in 1977 running the first National meeting, going on to twice running the World Long Track Semi-finals. 2000 saw the pinnacle of his organizing career when the NBMCC organized a World Long Track Final.
In the last seven years he has been a member of the National T&E Committee, a responsibility which he enjoyed, whether it was getting up early for the 80 mile trip to Rugby for meetings, or traveling to the Isle of Man for the Steward’s job for the Manx 2 Day and sidecar championship round. Having spent 52 years involved in the sport, John retired at the end of 2010 due to his ineligibility to stand for re-election to the T&E Committee due to the ACU's Rules on age and it was unanimously decided that John was a well-deserved winner of the Medal of Honour. This Award has previously been awarded to Ron Carter and Jack Parker for their services to the ACU and motorcycle sport in general.