McRAE CELEBRATION AT KNOCKHILL
Rallying stars to join the McRae family in tribute to Colin at special event in Scotland
Some of the biggest stars in rallying will gather at Knockhill on July 2-3 to celebrate the life of Colin McRae.
The McRae Rally Challenge will feature a competitive rally as well as demonstrations and parades on the Scottish circuit. The event will be headed by Colin’s father Jimmy, brother
Alistair and nephew Max.
Jimmy will contest the rally in the Stobart-liveried Ford Escort Mk2, while Alister and Max will travel from Australia for the occasion.
There will be a star-studded entry for the rally, running over five stages each day, including Stig Blomqvist and Louis Moya teaming up in a Vauxhall Firenza and Gwyndaf Evans competing for the first time in the Ford Escort
Mk2 that his son Elfyn gave him as a present. Elfyn will be there on Sunday to demonstrate two cars.
An extensive collection of 23 cars from the Colin McRae story will be on track, including six WRC Subaru Imprezas, two Ford Focus WRCs, Colin’s Escort Mk2, the one-off McRae R4 and his Donegal Rally Metro 6R4. The early years will be represented by his Hillman
Avenger, Vauxhall Nova, Peugeot 309 and his first autotest Mini. A parade will be headed by his World titlewinning Impreza ‘L555 BAT’.
Other stars on hand will include co-drivers Tina Thorner, Derek Ringer, Phil Mills and Nicky Grist. Louise Aitken-Walker and Thorner will be reunited with a Peugeot 205 and Escort RS1600i from their rallying careers.
The competitive event, covering the circuit and some of the access roads, will feature 60 crews in the main rally and another 20 Junior 1000 crews, as Sir Chris Hoy makes his rallying debut in a Mitsubishi Evo.
Alongside the competitive event will be track parades, and quicker demonstration sessions with 35 rally cars from Slowly Sideways including five Audi Quattros,
Peugeot 205 T16s, Lancia 037s and Metro 6R4s.
Stuart Gray of Knockhill told MN: “The parade of Colin’s cars will be one of the highlights. We will stop the rally stage twice each day from 1115hrs until 1200hrs and from 1330hrs to 1500hrs for parades and demonstrations. It should be a fantastic celebration of one of Scotland’s greatest motorsport families.”