A volunteer-run rescue organisation borne from a harrowing tragedy is marking 50 years of dedicated service this year.

The Queensbury-based Motor Sports Services Organisation began life in 1968, the brainchild of Bradford father and son Leslie and David Barraclough.

The pair were marshalling at the Croft Circuit, near Dalton-on-Tees, in 1967, when a fatal accident unfolded before them.

Helpless to do anything and with safety facilities almost non-existent, Leslie and David vowed to make a difference – and so began the Motor Sport Services Organisation.

Armed with a Ford Transit van - bought with money donated by the father of a Formula 3 driver and equipped with what was then the most up-to-date kit - they combined rescue and medical equipment into one vehicle.

The group is still going strong 50 years down the line. It now boasts a fleet of specialised vehicles and has kick-started the beginning of countless other groups across the country - but the ethos has remained the same.

Karl Barraclough, 37, who has taken the reins of the organisation with his dad Paul, said: “We just do it because we enjoy motorsport and we are putting something back into the sport we love doing.

“It’s a hobby to us. My dad, myself, my wife and my cousin, we’re just continuing something that’s been brought up in the family and we are proud of it.”

Like his dad Paul, Karl has been a life-long volunteer with the organisation his late grandfather and uncle set up.

“I was there literally from pram to now,” he said. “It was in my blood. My little lad helps wash the ambulance when we’re getting ready for events and things. He’s obsessed with it. He’s only four and he knows it inside out.”

The group uses an American ambulance, equipped with advanced equipment and cutting tools.

“All the dirty, greasy, oily stuff is on the outside and then inside it’s all very clean and the medical equipment is inside,” Karl said. “So if we do have a casualty inside they are not faced with all the greasy, oily things.

“There’s nobody in the country who is running with what we’ve got at the minute.”

And they have just invested £30,000 in new cutting equipment so their work can continue. The group is governed by the Motor Sport Association, which stipulates the kit it needs to carry and how often volunteers need training. Volunteers attend around 60 events a year and were on the scene in September 2016, when Guernsey entrepreneur Zef Eisenberg suffered life-threatening injuries in motorcycle crash at Elvington Airfield, near York. Karl, who runs a cafe in Bailiff Bridge, said: “You can go a full season without anything to do. The last three years have been really bad, we went through a spate where nearly every event we did, we had quite serious incidents. You’ve got to be on your toes.”