Perth to stage Scotland's biggest rally in honour of McRae

Jul 4 2008 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

THE largest gathering of world rallying’s international stars ever seen in Scotland will be held in Perth later this year in honour of the late Colin McRae.

Coltness Car Club’s Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally on September 27 is being organised as a fitting tribute to the world champion, who died in a helicopter crash last year.

Now former world champions and other international stars from the last 40 years are coming together for a unique rally in Colin’s memory.

Many of the stars will be driving historic rally cars, the vehicles which made them famous in the decades from the seventies until now.

The latest driver announcing that he is coming to Scotland is former World Rally Champion Bjorn Waldegard, who will take the wheel of a historic Porsche 911, the same 3-litre car that Colin drove in Wales in 2004.

“The event has already attracted entries from Ari Vatanen, Stig Blomqvist, Hannu Mikkola, Russell Brookes, Andrew Cowan, Phil Collins, Jimmy and Alister McRae,” said Waldegard.

“It will be a very special weekend in memory of Britain’s first and youngest World Rally Champion,” added Waldegard at the finish of the Midnight Sun Rally in Sweden earlier this week, an event he won in the same Porsche he now plans to bring to Scotland.

The September event is the final round of the County Saab Scottish Rally Championship and one which was close to Colin McRae’s heart.

This year, with a unique entry of past stars and their cars also taking part against the drivers of today in modern four wheel drive supercars, the tribute rally is expected to attract tens of thousands of spectators into the Perthshire forests for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.