It is 1995 and the whole of the UK is celebrating Colin McRae's WRC title victory, which helped cement the UK as a genuine title winning nation after many years of obscurity and to commemorate this they are throwing a party 20 years later.
It is so hard to believe that it has been 20 year since Colin’s first and only World Rally Championship title win and this officially means that I’ve moved from being a young 6 year old boy, to a guy who’s going to be 26 when Wales Rally GB comes around. However, my age is not the issue at hand, no, the real issue is that come May16/17 all of us rally fans will be brought back to a time when Subaru and Mitsubishi battled for supremacy and when driving flat out with loads of sideways was cool, because the UK is celebrating their first British Drivers WRC title win in the last 4 decades with an epic Rally Challenge.
The Rally Challenge is slated to take place the Knockhill Racing circuit where the drivers will face two days and thirty miles of fun-filled rallying in a closed environment. The format is quite simple: two days, five stages per day and three classes of rally cars, so that no generation would be forgotten, after all, Colin loved speed and that’s what we will all celebrate.
They have a pretty good assortment of cars lined up and in accordance to the club website we are expected to see “rally cars of the Past, featuring some of the best loved competition rally cars of the 70s and 80s, including stunning MKII Escorts and S2000s, rally Cars of the Present, featuring some of the UK’s top Rallying outfits driving current-spec Evos, Imprezas, Fiestas and more and rally Cars of the Future, showcasing up and coming young rally talent via the Junior 1000 Rally Series.” Not be outdone will be his title winning Impreza, that will be on show and center stage, if only Colin was a alive and well to drive her.
Naturally, this attracts many competitors and of the entrants so far we have some really great drivers in the former British Champion David Boogie and Ex- Scottish Champions Euan Thorburn (watch this guy he’s going to be a big one if he gets his chance). There hasn’t been any mention of former close friends of McRae Mark Higgins or Ken Block entering as yet, neither was there any mention of his father the legend Jimmy McRae, but what can be confirmed is the attendance of former Hyundai Works driver and brother of Colin, Alister McRae and current Citroen Racing works driver Kris Meeke who would tell you at any moment that he owes his career to the great man.
When speaking to WRC.com Kris had this to say, "I have many happy memories of my time in Scotland, where I was given such a warm welcome by the McRae family and indeed the wider rallying fraternity,… Colin’s support, advice and encouragement played a huge part in the development of my early rallying career and gave me the opportunity to compete at the highest level. It will be great to be able to relax amongst friends in the build up to the WRC round in Portugal the following weekend.” All I need as a ticket to the UK and I’m off
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