This October’s RACMSA Rally of Scotland has officially joined forces with Colin McRae Vision – the charity set up in memory of the legendary Scottish rallying hero to support underprivileged children.
Furthermore, Colin’s father Jimmy, himself a five times British Rally Champion, will drive the ‘Zero’ course car on the event (7-9 October) – this will be one of Colin’s first and best remembered competition cars, the Subaru Legacy in which he won the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Championship titles.
Colin McRae Vision was launched in 2008 to promote educational and health programmes for children. Founded in memory of the world’s most famous rally driver – and also the 1995 World Rally Champion – it has made donations of more than £50,000 in the UK and overseas in the last 12 months alone. During October’s Rally of Scotland it will make further donations to worthy causes nominated by Perthshire and Stirlingshire councils – it is through both counties that the rally will predominantly run. In addition, the Vision’s own retail unit will be present during the event to generate funds from the public.
Lanark-based Jimmy McRae commented: “It’s quite appropriate that I’ll be driving the Legacy as it’s 20 years since Colin won his first British title and 30 years since I won my first British title.
“I’m really looking forward to this event. The Legacy was a big car to throw around the forests but the memories that people will have of it with Colin at the wheel, sideways, the famous colour scheme and that very distinctive engine note should hopefully put a smile on quite a few faces.
“Rally of Scotland’s simply a great event for the country with many of the top international stars putting on a show on what the drivers and public regard as the best competitive stages about. I have a lot of knowledge of the stages around Perth from my own rallying days and the McRae Stages event but I haven’t been down in the Carron Valley here in Lanarkshire for 20 or more years. Colin’s brother Alister (also a past British Rally Champion) is almost certainly going to be taking part in the event so hopefully this will help add more interest around what we are trying to achieve.”
McRae Snr added: “I’m sure Colin probably didn’t realise just how popular he was but through his popularity we’ve been able to do quite a bit recently. When we set up the Vision charity we could see there was an opportunity to put money back into kids and help with their health and education – things that Colin was always behind.”
Andrew Coe, Chief Executive of International Motor Sports (IMS) that organises the Rally of Scotland, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be supporting Colin McRae Vision for 2011 – it is a wonderfully moving and noble charity and we sincerely hope our event can help raise further awareness and support for the tremendous work it carries out. We are also deeply honoured that Jimmy McRae will in effect be leading the field through each stage in that famous Subaru Legacy of Colin’s from the early Nineties. It is sure to be a hugely emotional moment for many of the thousands of fans out on the stages during the weekend.”
The Rally of Scotland (7-9 Oct) is the UK’s only round of the high-profile Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The 2011 event is set to attract a star-studded entry of world-class rally teams, cars and drivers. British hopes are expected to lie with Scottish aces, Lanark’s Alister McRae (British Rally Champion in 1995) in his Proton and newly crowned 2011 Scottish Rally Champion David Bogie (Dumfries), as well as Darlington’s Guy Wilks – winner in 2009 – in his factory Peugeot UK 207. There will also likely be huge support for the Skoda UK-entered Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen in his Fabia.
Making the running at present, however, are the likes of Skoda’s Finnish megastar Juho Hanninen (last year’s Rally of Scotland winner and reigning IRC Champion), Belgians Freddy Loix and Thierry Neuville, France’s Bryan Bouffier and the Czech Republic’s Jan Kopecky. In addition to Proton, Skoda and Peugeot, other famous rallying makes such as Ford, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Citroen will be represented on the entry list.
This year’s Rally of Scotland will get under way on the Friday afternoon (7 Oct) with a Ceremonial Start at Stirling Castle before the event’s opening two competitive timed stages held in the dark of night around Carron Reservoir in North Lanarkshire. The event will then move into Perthshire on the Saturday (8 Oct), taking in classic stages such as Craigvinean, Drummond Hill and Errochty before a return on the Sunday (9 Oct) to Lanarkshire for another run through Carron Valley before moving into Stirlingshire for two new tests, Loch Chon and the giant 26km High Corrie that will each be tackled twice. The Rally will then finish late afternoon on the Sunday with its two short final stages through the majestic grounds of Scone Palace near Perth – also the scene for this year’s Ceremonial Finish.
Public admission costs £20 per vehicle at the entry to each stage with the exception of Sunday morning’s Carron Valley stage which costs £10.
For more information about the 2011 Rally of Scotland – including latest news, route details and full stage timetable – visit the official www.rallyofscotland.com website.
Media wishing to apply for accreditation to Rally of Scotland can do visiting rallyofscotland.com and clicking on ‘News & Media’.
For more information about Colin McRae Vision visit www.colinmcrae.com/vision.