Mike Eckenrode could give a better idea about the earliest time.
I came on when RCMT first opened on it's own, about a month into it I registered.
Matt H started RCMT sometime in late 1997 to beginning of 1998 breaking away from another forum where monster trucks were just a sub category.
I was looking for updated steering for my ESP Clod and found RCMT very friendly and helpful. Not long after the original Juggernaut was released and I posted the first videos of it online. It took 2 gear sets to make. Traded it for a used USA-1 because at the time it was popular here and had huge aftermarket support here on RCMT.
Things were going well here for a few years, but then we had a server issue and went to EZBoard and membership started dwindling and splitting off to smaller specific webpages. I took over in April of 2006 until Aug 2011. My first ''mission'' was to get us off EZ and onto a server we had more control of. That happened May 2006. I had our first fund raising raffle in June 2006. A red Tamiya Hilux in cherry shape and a coveted truck at the time.
Looking back seems stupid now always looking for a cheap host server, they always let us down after the first year was up. That is where all the alternate domains come in, testing and moving while allowing what we had stay in service.
That's about all I can give on the server and ownership side.
Original moderators were
Mike E
Neil, aka Digger
Matt V was an Aux admin
Matt H owner
Marcus was the USA1 guy and a mod
I came on as a mod in 2001
We voted Orange Peadeanaut as a mod to help court younger guys who thought we were to ''Old''

I think Nick was 14
Couple years and I was made an Aux Admin when Matt V left