Vaughan Field

Life Member

Fifteen years' service, 13 of them as president, to the Gisborne Car Club was recognised at its recent annual general meeting when Hexton farmer, and A and P Association president Vaughan Field, was elected a life member.

A life-long interest in motor vehicles, which started at the early age of six when he used to drive his father's 1919 Buick around the family farm of "Homebush", has led Vaughan through many facets of the exciting life of motor sport.

As a competitive driver he was runner-up in the 1953 N.Z. sports car championship raced at Ohakea, won the first Car Club hill climb, held on Gaddums Hill in 1952, and has been a consistent winner of quarter-mile sprints.

As an administrator, apart from playing a leading role in the local club, he is a member of the Gisborne Road Safety Committee, is the Cook County representative to the Advisory Council of the A.A., and is a steward of Motor Sport N.Z. (formerly A.N.Z.C.C.).

A talented self-taught mechanic, he became interested in the intricacies of the internal combustion engine when, out of necessity, as an agricultural contractor in the late 1930's, servicing difficulties forced him to maintain his own machinery.

From this developed the interest in increasing the performance of stock motors which has seen many "hot" vehicles emerge from his farmyard "stable". One of his more notable efforts was the rebuilding and "souping up" of a Mercury saloon into a 120 m.p.h. pick-up utility which served the unlikely dual purpose of a farm vehicle and a high-powered racer on the Ohakea circuit.

Today, a staunch supporter of Ford vehicles (he has owned 20 different types), Vaughan is the proud owner of two American Galaxies, his first new cars, and has over one million miles of safe motoring behind him.