“Rallying is in the blood and, for the Mcraes, difficult to get out of the system”

● Ten years after World Rally Champion Colin Mcrae’s death, brother Alister tells of his personal pain and the family legacy

Scots rallying legend COLIN MCRAE died in a helicopter crash ten years ago today and younger brother Alister reveals the pain that never goes away and the drive to keep competing.

Ten years ago today, Scotland lost one of its true sporting greats when Colin Mcrae died in a helicopter crash near his South Lanarkshire home. For the former world rally champion’s younger brother Alister – now on the far side of the world – it will be poignant and difficult, just the same as every day since the tragedy.

“It will be tough because this is the tenth anniversary,” said Alister. “More people are wanting to remember Colin. But, to be honest, this has been my life since that dreadful day. I’ve never stopped thinking about him. I do it every day and always will.” Alister followed Colin into rallying, their father and five-time British champ Jimmy having introduced both of them to the thrills of sideways driving.

It was ten years ago that Alister, pictured right, moved to Perth, Australia and he now classes himself as “semiretired”. But, as he prepares to honour Colin’s memory by driving his 1995 world titlewinning Subaru Impreza, Alister admits to facing the same problems as his brother in giving up the adrenalin rush of barrelling speeds and swishing turns.

He said: “Rallying is in the blood and, for the Mcraes, difficult to get out of the system.

“Dad is 74 next month and he’s still rallying. He did the Ulster Rally recently and then nipped over to Flanders in Belgium for an event. I can’t stop if he’s still doing it! I can’t let him be the only Mcrae out there. But he’s an inspiration to me to keep going.”

The crash in Mouse Valley near Larkhall also killed Colin’s fiveyear-old son Johnny, his six-year-old friend Benporcelliandgraeme Duncan, 37. A sheriff later ruled that Colin, who didn’t have a valid pilot’s licence for the helicopter, had “imprudently and unnecessarily” embarked on a low-level flight into a heavily-wooded valley.

Five years ago, in a book about Colin, his widow Alison admitted he’d struggled to come to terms with the end of his rallying career, having quit a year before the crash. “There was a big thing in Colin’s head: ‘What am I going to do with my life now?’ ” she said. “There was part of him that just felt useless. He’d say: ‘Alison, I can’t do anything apart from driving cars’.” Speaking to The Scotsman from the home he shares with his Australian wife Tara and children Max and Emmie, Alister said: “I can definitely relate to that. I was incredibly lucky, as was Colin, that my hobby turned into my career. We both put so much into it and got so much out of it. But the biggest fear in motorsport is when you’re not professional anymore.”

This explains why Alister is just back from Brittany in France, having competed in rallycross for the first time at the age of 47. In rallying you’re racing against the clock often on lonely forest tracks; in rallycross you’re on a circuit with other cars. Unsurprisingly, he loved it.

It was the ninth stage of the 2017 World Rallycross Championship in Loheac, watched by a mere 70,000 enthusiasts. “I wouldn’t say it’s a bump’n’smash event but there’s a fair bit of rubbing,” he laughed. “There’s action for sure. Rallycross is short and sharp with a lot of cars and you have to be aggressive.”

So, is he? “Oh aye. But for my first go I held back. You don’t want to be labelled the bad boy straight away!”

There was a wiper incident, a snag with which he’s not entirely unfamiliar if you check out his clips on Youtube. A popular one from his rallies – and he clocked up 76 of them – has him hurriedly rip out a radio cable and tie it to the defunct wiper so he could