Scots ace Alan lifts virtual BRC title

SCOTS motorsport and gaming enthusiast Alan Scott has been crowned the inaugural PCSpecialist Esports British Rally Champion.

As well as lifting the first Motorsport UK Esports title, he’ll get a test drive in a Ford Fiesta R2T with top BRC team EDSL Sport.

After the coronavirus outbreak, Britain’s major rallying series set up the eBRC, using the popular DiRT Rally 2.0 game by Codemasters. The series consisted of four rounds, with asphalt events in Spain and Germany and gravel challenges in Wales and Scotland to bookend the three-month contest.

The championship was open to members of the Motorsport UK community, with more than 580 registered competitors, as fans, marshals, Esports drivers and rallying stars all came together to go head-to-head in the virtual contest.

With the prize coming in the form of a test in a real Ford Fiesta, all drivers used an identical car in the game, which was contested by PlayStation, Xbox and PC users. And 23-year-old Alan, from Grantown-on-Spey, was the class of the field as he took two wins – in Spain and on home turf – from four events.

The new champ, who has been playing DiRT Rally 2.0 for a few years now, said: “I am absolutely over the moon to win. The opportunity to test a real rally car is just amazing. I have driven in local navigational rallies in my road car but it will be my first time in a proper car.”

BRC championship manager Iain Campbell said: “The BRC team would like to congratulate Alan. We look forward to seeing our virtual champion in a real rally car.”

Meanwhile, the Scottish Motor Racing Club has been finalising its plans for three days of real track action at Fife’s Knockhill Circuit – taking place on September 12 and October 10 and 31.

The four categories of racing are scheduled to see 21 competitors in the Citroen C1 Championship, 19 in the Classics, 23 in a combined MINI and Hot Hatch series and 12 in the Legends.

Other Scots have been back in circuit action down south. Knockhill-based British Touring Cars racer Rory Butcher showed he was on the pace in his new Ford Focus – topping the lap times during two days of testing at Snetterton in Norfolk.

BTCC rival Aiden Moffat, testing his Infiniti at Snetterton, and Ross Wylie, at Silverstone for Porsche Carrera Cup trials, both tweeted that it was great to be back on track.