Home hero Alister McRae makes IRC return

Alister McRae will return to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge on RACMSA Rally of Scotland from 7-9 October, 12 months after he last took part in the all-action series.

McRae, who is from Lanark west of the event base in Perth, will drive a PROTON Satria Neo Super 2000 for the Malaysian manufacturer’s factory team. He finished second on the inaugural Rally of Scotland in 2009 and will be bidding to emulate that performance on a rare outing in his homeland.

“It’s always nice to come home to compete again,” said McRae, who now lives near Perth in Western Australia. “Obviously, I have good memories of rallying in this part of the world and it’ll be great to see the [Scottish] Saltire flags out there flying high. We had a good finish here a couple of years ago, when we finished second in the PROTON. But the competition is going to be really tough, there’s a good, quality entry for the rally.”

McRae, who is the younger brother of rallying legend Colin McRae, will be co-driven by Australian Bill Hayes. He is due to test in Scotland next week alongside PROTON team-mate PG Andersson.

In addition to McRae, 17 other drivers will compete in Super 2000 machinery in Scotland as part of an exciting 38-car entry. The event features 15 stages over a competitive of distance of 196.96 kilometres with four stages shown live on Eurosport.