Presentation of the Michael ‘Beef’ Park Trophy

The Welsh Motorsport & Supercar Festival will honour the memory of three of the UK’s most loved co-drivers when it hosts the presentation of the Michael Park Trophy for one last time.

Wales’ biggest Motorsport & Supercar Festival takes place on Sunday 21 September – almost 20 years to the day since the tragic accident on the 2005 Wales Rally GB that claimed the life of Michael in Margam forest.

Affectional known as Beef – a nickname given to him when he worked at a Herefordshire cider farm, where he was told he needed to ‘beef up’ in order to move the apples and cider barrels! – the Michael Park Trophy was, for a number of years, presented annually to a co-driver selected by a panel of WRC experts.

Gareth ‘Jaffa’ Roberts was the first co-driver to receive the Michael Park Trophy, and his brother Dai Roberts will posthumously be the last.

The original cast bronze Hereford Bull trophy will be presented by a number of WRC stars – including Petter Solberg, Daniel Elena and Phil Mills – and be collected on behalf of Dai Roberts by his father Mike and son Jac.

It’s a great honour for Pembrey Circuit and the Welsh Motorsport & Supercar Festival to host this very special presentation – and it will be an emotional moment too, as Michael, Gareth and Dai are no longer with us; each taken doing a sport they loved far, far too soon.

A huge ‘thank you’ to the Park and Roberts families, and several of their close friends, who have made this presentation possible.

On display on the Ralïo interview stage (where the presentation will take place) will be a selection of Beef’s race suits (from Ford, Subaru, Peugeot and the Estonia Rally Team), two helmets and his 2002 Network Q Rally GB trophy (where he finished 2nd, co-driving for Markko Märtin).

Also on display will be the Subaru Impreza S7 WRC (X19 SRT - chassis #25) that Markko Märtin/Michael Park contested the 2001 Sanremo Rally in.

Join us in honouring their lives and legacies.