Driven by passion
It’s petrol head heaven as motor buffs get revved up for the McRae rally challenge at Knockhill
THE discarded bicycle, quietly forlorn amid a mass of mewling cars, is perhaps a clue to an illustrious past. Sir Chris Hoy is alongside a familiar mode of transport even as he contemplates a fresh challenge in the noisy present.
The Olympian of six golds on the cycle track is about to embark on his first rally. He has been racing a car for 12 seasons but Knockhill is the scene of his first official rally. He has raced in Le Mans but this patch of Fife holds a special significance.
The McRae Rally Challenge, held over the weekend, lured Jimmy, Alister and Max of that ilk on to the track (pictured below). They are respectively father, brother and nephew of Colin McRae, world rally champion, who died in a helicopter accident in 2007, aged 39.
For Hoy, Colin was and is a sporting inspiration. ‘Yes, it’s my first rally but I have waited a long time for it,’ he says as he receives his final instructions before strapping himself into his Mitsubishi Evo 9. ‘I have known the McRae family for some time and Colin was just such a brilliant driver.’
Unusually for a character as driven as Hoy, the weekend spin
Rallying is what the McRaes live for... it’s in their blood
was not about beating others. ‘Normally for me sports is about speed and competitiveness but this is a bit different,’ he says. ‘Today is about getting around safely and to see what it is like to travel at speed in an environment that allows you to do so.’
The pre-race whines and the roars of the engines do not perturb Hoy. ‘I am not nervous at the moment. I was before cycling finals because you need that adrenaline to compete. But today is not about competing against others, it is about testing myself, seeing what I can do.’
On a stage just yards away from Hoy’s pit, stands rallying royalty. Louise Aitken-Walker was the first ever World Ladies Rallying Champion in 1990. Her career blossomed after she won a competition organised by Ford to find a woman driver. More than 2,000 entered but the lass from the Borders took the laurels. ‘It is a great thing to be invited here because Colin was a brilliant driver. Scotland is a great hub for rallying,’ she says. ‘It’s a family affair in that drivers, fans and officials all share that love of the sport.’
Aitken-Walker was a driver for change in women’s sport but she does not define herself as a feminine competitor. ‘I just don’t see it that way,’ she says. ‘We competed against the men and we beat them, so the whole lady driver thing was shelved. It was tough but there was nothing more satisfying.’
She knows the McRae dynasty and is insightful on what has brought three generations of the family to rallying success.
‘No, I wouldn’t say so,’ she says in response to a query about whether rallying ability was simply genetic. ‘In the nicest way, the McRae family are a rally family. End of. They are not going to be brought up to play football or tennis. Rallying is in their blood. That’s how it is. It is what the McRaes live for.’
Patriarch Jimmy won the British championship a record five times, son Alister won it twice and his son, Max, has at 17 already laid the foundations of a typically successful McRae career.
Behind his trailer as his car is given final checks, Alister acknowledges that there is a poignancy to the event in that it was organised to celebrate the McRae family and Colin, of course. But he adds quickly: ‘It is just great to be rallying again in Scotland. Aye, it is great that the three generations of the family are competing and it be good to race against Max for the first time. I shouldn’t really say this but I hope he beats me. There is always that competitive bit in you but today is a celebration.’
His wish later came true. At the halfway stage after a day’s racing on Saturday, Gary Pearson led the field. Max was in sixth with his father 20th.
THERE are solid tributes to the McRaes, particularly Colin. More than 20 of Colin’s cars sit in pit lane garages or under tents for the fanatics to peer at in barely disguised awe before the vehicles form a parade around the track. John Beattie wipes one vigorously with a cloth before being invited to discuss his relationship with the family. ‘We go back to Coltness Car Club,’ he says. ‘I did some work for Jimmy then and the two young boys ran about on bikes. That’s how they started, scrambling.
‘Colin was just a lad, one of the boys. But he started to show promise on the bikes. His dad was having success in cars and Colin fancied a bit of it.’
He adds: ‘His dad did not throw money at him. You had to build a car in those days. You had to take parts from scrapyards and come up with something. Colin blasted out the traps in a Sunbeam but it was this that showed what he was capable of.’
‘This’ is a Vauxhall Nova. In 1987, McRae took what looks like an unprepossessing little motor and laid down his marker as a potential champion.
‘This is what he got noticed in. This was the genesis for Colin. He showed what he could do,’ says Beattie. ‘This is a replica one, just to let people see it and get in it. The original one is in the paddock but is too valuable to drive.’
He surveys the line of cars in the tent and says: ‘I have been connected over the years with the McRaes, mostly doing bodywork. This is a labour of love. This is rallying history, synonymous with the McRaes and with world championships.’
Some of the cars were transported to Knockhill by James Gibb, whose business complements his passion as a driver. He is leaning over a 1989 E30 BMW that he will drive in the rally later. ‘I took it in part exchange and through lockdown I restored it to a competitive state,’ he says. He talks of sequential boxes and paddle gears and of how he started as a boy in a humble Marina.
‘It was my mum’s car and I took it up to the track at Kames, near my home in Strathaven. I fair battered about.’ Gibbs, now 54, is vague about what age he was when these high jinks were undertaken but admits he passed his test when 17 and went straight into rallying.’
He recalls the link with the family. ‘We were all members of Coltness Car Club and they helped with advice which was invaluable. Jimmy also gave my son, Taylor, some tuition. It was, of course, top class.’
Rab McDonald, eligibility scrutiniser, is gearing up for a busy day. At 80, he has spent a lifetime in the sport, officiating all over the world.
‘I was there when Colin won the world championship at Chester racecourse in 1995,’ he says.
Of the McRae weekend, he adds: ‘I had to be here. Colin was a good, fun lad. I would never have sat beside him in a car because he would put the fear of death in you. But he was a cracking lad.’
This was the mood of the day. The engines roar, the fans applaud and the Tannoy cracks out messages and commentary, but the quiet, insistent message is of a hero lost but still loved.