History
Originally called The 850 Club, interest grew and people with other makes of car joined, and in 1963 Ystrad Mynach Motor Club was formed and became affiliated to the RAC Motor Sport Association. As the club grew in size and gathered momentum, events were organized such as road rallies, stage rallies and auto tests.
The first road rally the club organized was called the Ides of March Rally because of the time of year it was held. It was a popular round of the Welsh Road Rally Championship for many years and its greatest achievement was to be included in the Motoring News National Road Rally Championship in 1981. The clubs other road rally was the Witches Brew which was also an old favorite with many competitors. In 1995 it changed from an event for modern cars to an event for classic cars and this was included in the Welsh Historic Road Rally Championship.
YMMC has had and still has many successful rallying members. Peter Vaughan was three times Welsh Road Rally Champion Driver in 1980,’81 & ‘82. Peter Watts in 1982 and Alun Cook in 1993 were both Welsh Road Rally Navigator Champions. Neil Jones in the ex Tony Pond TR7 V8 was a familiar face on Welsh and Motoring News events winning rounds in both championships. Dennis Quinn won the vehicle class of the Welsh Championship in 1993 along side Alun Cook. Peter Watts won the National Championship in 1986 along side Alister Sutherland in a Metro 6R4. Peter also won the Manx National Rally with Steve Davies and competed on the Welsh International Rally with Mark Lovell. Alun Cook has had many class wins on National and International events and in 2006 competed on the Wales Rally GB with Julian Reynolds.
In the late eighties a young navigator from Herefordshire joined the club. He was known as ‘Beef’ and he went on to become one of the top co-drivers in the WRC. Sadly Mike Park was tragically killed on the 2005 Wales Rally GB. Mike was a very special person, and a competitor who never forgot his roots and always had time to talk with old and new friends from the Welsh clubs where he spent many happy hours at the start of his brilliant career.
Into the new millennium and the club grows ever strong. We have a large base of drivers, navigators, marshals and club members. All are competing and in fact winning various championships around the country. Most recently we have had crowned champions Callum Black and Paul Wakely who have won the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship BRC Challenge. Also in 2010 we had double winners of both the Dulux Trade MSA Ancro Production Cup and Subaru Cup with Alex Allingham and Mark Glennerster.