The Grafton Sporting Car Club had its beginning in 1955 on a section of unsealed road climbing a steep hill on the outskirts of South Grafton. A group of twelve motoring enthusiasts with no experience of motor sport conducted a very basic hillclimb using a flag to signal the start and a stopwatch at the finish for timing. This event on a Sunday afternoon began the movement which would lead to the formation of a Sporting Car Club in Grafton on 28 June 1955.

So the Grafton Sporting Car Club began at a hillclimb 59 years ago and through its history the Club has established and enhanced its reputation for its presentation of outstanding hillclimbs from Club level events to State and National Championships.

The first club hillclimb on the Rushforth Road hill was held on 22 April 1956. Timing equipment had been built so it was no longer necessary to have the finish line in sight of the start. This enabled the original course to be lengthened to include two curves and extend the climb well beyond the sight of the start line. The length of the course was recorded as 0.63 miles which is 1014 metres. The clock for the timing system was a 2 second sweep stopwatch enabling timing to one hundredth of a second and traffic lights were positioned to control the start. Twenty four members entered for this closed event and the Daily Examiner reported 350 spectators enjoyed the event. Fastest time of the day went to Kethel Rooke driving his EKR Ford. The time of 43.9 seconds established the first record for the Rushforth Hill. The trophy for the outright winner was donated by George Weiley and points were awarded to the placegetters in the 5 classes forming part of the Annual Point Score Trophy donated by Dr Hugh Harris.