Stonehaven & District Motor Club
ABOUT US
Welcome to the Stonehaven and District Motor Club. Since 1952 we have been organising and running many grassroots motorsport events as well as more recently becoming home to the Grampian Forest Rally.
We are part of the North East of Scotland Motorsport Club and are regulated by Motorsport UK.
Stonehaven has never been a big club in terms of actual membership numbers but it has always been very big in the development of motor sport since its re-establishment after the war in 1952. In those days, the Club catered for two wheel as well as four wheel motor sport and most of the income was generated by the motorcycle events - Scrambles at Nether Wyndings, Grass Track Racing at Farrochie and Trials at Skatey Shore among others.
Stonehaven & DMC was a founder member of the North East Motor Clubs Group which was set up in the late Fifties to avoid the problem of too many clubs holding too many events for not enough competitors. The idea behind the Group was to allow Clubs’ members to use events other than their own for inclusion in their own and latterly the Group championship. SDMC has maintained this policy more or less constantly ever since.
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When there was talk of creating a proper RAC recognised Association in the North East, it was recognised that such a body had to have a proper Constitution which set out the aims and rules for the member clubs. A copy of the SDMC Constitution was offered for this purpose and used with only the title changed. Recognition of this North East Association was overtaken by events further south when the Club received an invitation to attend a meeting in Dundee regarding the possible establishment of a formal RAC recognised Association of Motor Clubs for the East of Scotland. (Such an Association had just been formed in the West of Scotland.)
It was agreed by the nine clubs present in Dundee that an Association should be formed, and a Constitution was required under the RAC regulations The SDMC representatives had with them a copy of the new North East Association (SDMC based) constitution which they offered to the meeting for consideration. This was agreed as being exactly what was needed and adopted for the new East of Scotland Association of Car Clubs - ESACC. Not bad for a small Club!! When you see that the other founder ESACC members included 55Car Club, 750 MC, Dunfermline CC, St Andrews & DMC, Arbroath & DMC, this is no mean feat.
Even in the early days of the club’s current existence, members regularly competed in events run by other clubs for both bike and car enthusiasts. This and the reputation for the promotion of good quality events has ensured that the Club is held in high regard in Scottish Motor Sport. Long service - dedication, fanaticism, lunacy or whatever you wish to call it - by many committee members and office bearers over the years has been a major factor in this success. This continuity is the backbone of SDMC and the envy of many other clubs.
The Club has never been able to support itself purely from the membership, either in revenue or event entries and has therefore never displayed the complacency associated with clubs who have this facility. This area has never had an excess of competitors and entry lists have rarely been over-subscribed. So nothing has changed there either!! Comments such as “..it’s not worth running the event for six SDMC members competing at Durris so ...” go against the Club tradition. The Hairst Rally which was included for the first time in the Esso Scottish Road Rally Championship had 74 entries - very few of them from SDMC.
This was due in no small part to the fact that most of the club members were deeply involved in running and marshalling the event. Membership at the time was around 35 fully paid up!!
