Alister McRae
Encyclopedia
Alister McRae is a Scottish
rally
driver, who competed in the World Rally Championship
. He is the son of the five-time British Rally Champion
Jimmy McRae
and the younger brother of the late 1995 World Rally Champion, Colin McRae
. Alister is married to Tara and is father to Emmie and Max.
events, success wasn't long in coming. In 1992, he won the prestigious Shell Scholarship and the production category of Great Britain
's round of the World Rally Championship
.
The following years saw further triumphs, culminating with Alister winning the British Rally Championship
outright in 1995, at the wheel of a works Nissan Sunny
. More manufacturer drives ensued, with a two-year contract being signed to drive the Formula 2 Volkswagen Golf
. He famously competed alongside his brother on a one-off basis in the Subaru World Rally Team
on the Rally of Great Britain of 1998.
His results and reputation led to his services being secured by the newest manufacturer to join the World Rally Championship, Hyundai
. In 1999, he competed in the front wheel drive Coupe while simultaneously developing Hyundai's first world rally car, the Accent WRC
, alongside veteran Swede
Kenneth Eriksson
. Then in 2000, he developed the car further during its first year of actual competition, scoring the manufacturer's first ever WRC points. In 2001, the fruits of two years' hard work began to show, with a series of points-scoring finishes (both drivers particularly impressing in the laborious conditions of that year's wet Rally Portugal) and a narrow miss of the podium on his home event, the Rally of Great Britain.
Following his performances with Hyundai, McRae was selected to join Mitsubishi
, stalwart of the WRC, in 2002. This transpired to be a difficult year, as the Japanese manufacturer found itself in turmoil, with an uncompetitive new car and a massive management re-structure. Things got even worse for the team when McRae was forced to pull out for the rest of the season due to injuries following a mountain bike crash shortly after that year's Rally San Remo therefore further hindering the team's championship effort. It subsequently pulled out of rallying at the beginning of the 2003 season, to build a new rally car from scratch, leaving McRae to piece together a sporadic privateer campaign at World Championship level, which was rewarded with a points-scoring showing in a Lancer Evolution in New Zealand
.
Undaunted by Mitsubishi's subsequent implicit resolve not to recall either himself or 2002 team-mate François Delecour
as the source of one of the few remaining factory opportunities sought to regroup for the 2004 season, Alister entered the 2004 Production World Rally Championship
instead. He was on course to take the title on the last event before a mechanical failure struck, handing the title to Niall McShea
.
2006 saw Alister successfully competing in the Chinese Rally Championship with the Wanyu Rally Team in a Mitsubishi Evo 9, along with a number of other selected international events. McRae also added to his tally of World championship appearances in the new Toyota Corolla
S2000
at the 2006 Wales Rally GB, racking up four Group N
stage
wins.
Alister filled in for his brother Colin alongside F1
driver David Coulthard
at the 2007 Race of Champions
held at Wembley following Colin's death just two months earlier.
He participated in 2009 Dakar Rally
.
He drove a Proton Satria Neo Super 2000
at the Indonesian leg of the APRC 2009.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
rally
Rallying
Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...
driver, who competed in the World Rally Championship
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...
. He is the son of the five-time British Rally Champion
British Rally Championship
The Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship is a yearly rallying series based in the United Kingdom. It comprises seven events with eight scoring opportunities throughout the British Isles. The first championship was run in 1958 and it has been licensed by the MSA Motor Sports Association since...
Jimmy McRae
Jimmy McRae
Jimmy McRae is a Scottish rally driver. He is the father of World Rally Championship drivers Alister McRae, and the late 1995 World Rally Champion Colin McRae...
and the younger brother of the late 1995 World Rally Champion, Colin McRae
Colin McRae
Colin Steele McRae, MBE was a Scottish rally driver born in Lanark.The son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae, Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion and, in 1995, became the first British person and the youngest to win the...
. Alister is married to Tara and is father to Emmie and Max.
Career
McRae took his first foray into motorsport at the age of twelve, when he took up motorcycle trials and motorcross. But it was always rallying where he would demonstrate his true colours. Starting out by competing in Scottish Rally ChampionshipScottish Rally Championship
The Scottish Rally Championship is a rallying series run throughout Scotland over the course of a year, that comprises seven gravel rallies and one tarmac event . Points are awarded to the top placed drivers and the driver scoring the highest number of points over the season is declared Champion...
events, success wasn't long in coming. In 1992, he won the prestigious Shell Scholarship and the production category of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
's round of the World Rally Championship
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...
.
The following years saw further triumphs, culminating with Alister winning the British Rally Championship
British Rally Championship
The Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship is a yearly rallying series based in the United Kingdom. It comprises seven events with eight scoring opportunities throughout the British Isles. The first championship was run in 1958 and it has been licensed by the MSA Motor Sports Association since...
outright in 1995, at the wheel of a works Nissan Sunny
Nissan Sunny
The Nissan Sunny is a small car from Nissan. It was launched in 1966 as the Datsun 1000 and although production in Japan ended in 2004, it remains in production today for the African, American and Sri Lankan markets. In the US, the later models were known as the Nissan Sentra; in Mexico, the Sunny...
. More manufacturer drives ensued, with a two-year contract being signed to drive the Formula 2 Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Golf
The Volkswagen Golf is a small family car manufactured by Volkswagen since 1974 and marketed worldwide across six generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada , and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico .The...
. He famously competed alongside his brother on a one-off basis in the Subaru World Rally Team
Subaru World Rally Team
The Subaru World Rally Team was Subaru's World Rally Championship team. It used a distinctive blue with yellow color scheme that is a throwback to the sponsorship deal with State Express 555, a BAT cigarette brand popular in Asia. 555 logos were found on Subaru cars from 1993 to 2003...
on the Rally of Great Britain of 1998.
Hyundai
Hyundai ) is a global conglomerate company, part of the Korean chaebol, that was founded in South Korea by one of the most famous businessmen in Korean history: Chung Ju-yung...
. In 1999, he competed in the front wheel drive Coupe while simultaneously developing Hyundai's first world rally car, the Accent WRC
Hyundai Accent
The Hyundai Accent , or Hyundai Verna in South Korea, is a subcompact car produced by Hyundai. In Australia, the first generation models carried over the Hyundai Excel name used by the Accent's predecessor. The Accent was replaced in 2000 by the Hyundai Verna in South Korea, although most...
, alongside veteran Swede
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Kenneth Eriksson
Kenneth Eriksson
Kenneth Eriksson is a now retired World Rally Championship rally driver. He drove for several manufacturer teams, including the Subaru World Rally Team, Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Škoda...
. Then in 2000, he developed the car further during its first year of actual competition, scoring the manufacturer's first ever WRC points. In 2001, the fruits of two years' hard work began to show, with a series of points-scoring finishes (both drivers particularly impressing in the laborious conditions of that year's wet Rally Portugal) and a narrow miss of the podium on his home event, the Rally of Great Britain.
Following his performances with Hyundai, McRae was selected to join Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi
The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
, stalwart of the WRC, in 2002. This transpired to be a difficult year, as the Japanese manufacturer found itself in turmoil, with an uncompetitive new car and a massive management re-structure. Things got even worse for the team when McRae was forced to pull out for the rest of the season due to injuries following a mountain bike crash shortly after that year's Rally San Remo therefore further hindering the team's championship effort. It subsequently pulled out of rallying at the beginning of the 2003 season, to build a new rally car from scratch, leaving McRae to piece together a sporadic privateer campaign at World Championship level, which was rewarded with a points-scoring showing in a Lancer Evolution in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
François Delecour
François Delecour is a rally driver.In the employ of Ford Motor Company as a driver of the factory-fettled Ford Escort RS Cosworth, he finished as runner-up in drivers' standings in the 1993 World Rally Championship season. He was still driving for Ford by January 1994, when he won the...
as the source of one of the few remaining factory opportunities sought to regroup for the 2004 season, Alister entered the 2004 Production World Rally Championship
Production World Rally Championship
The FIA Production World Rally Championship, or PWRC, is a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, and is driven on the same stages. PWRC is limited to production-based cars homologated under the Group N. The series began in 2002, replacing the FIA Group N Rally Championship...
instead. He was on course to take the title on the last event before a mechanical failure struck, handing the title to Niall McShea
Niall McShea
Niall McShea is an Irish rally driver. He won the Production World Rally Championship in 2004 in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI...
.
2006 saw Alister successfully competing in the Chinese Rally Championship with the Wanyu Rally Team in a Mitsubishi Evo 9, along with a number of other selected international events. McRae also added to his tally of World championship appearances in the new Toyota Corolla
Toyota Corolla
The Toyota Corolla is a line of subcompact and compact cars manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota, which has become very popular throughout the world since the nameplate was first introduced in 1966. In 1997, the Corolla became the best selling nameplate in the world, with over 35 million...
S2000
Super 2000
Super 2000, also known as S2000, is an FIA specification and classification for production based race cars. The specification is split to cover both rally and touring car racing. Super 2000 rally cars are also permitted to compete in Super 2000 World Rally Championship events...
at the 2006 Wales Rally GB, racking up four Group N
Group N
In relation to motorsport governed by the FIA, Group N refers to a set of regulations providing 'standard' production vehicles for competition, often referred to as the "Showroom Class"....
stage
Special stage (rallying)
Special stages are the competitive sections of a stage rally event where the goal is to cover a stretch of closed road in the shortest time. On a special stage cars are set off individually at set intervals to reduce the chances of being impeded by other competitors. Each special stage is a...
wins.
Alister filled in for his brother Colin alongside F1
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
driver David Coulthard
David Coulthard
David Marshall Coulthard, MBE, , sometimes known as DC, is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland.Coulthard, who was born in Dumfries and raised nearby in Twynholm, made his Formula One debut in 1994 and won 13 Grands Prix in a career spanning 15 seasons...
at the 2007 Race of Champions
2007 Race of Champions
The 2007 Race of Champions took place on December 16 at the Wembley Stadium. Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel of the German team beat Finland to the Nation's Cup, however Mattias Ekström of Sweden and the Scandinavian team won the Driver's Cup after beating Schumacher in the three-heat...
held at Wembley following Colin's death just two months earlier.
He participated in 2009 Dakar Rally
2009 Dakar Rally
The 2009 Dakar Rally was the 30th running of the Dakar Rally. In addition to motorcycle, automobile, and truck categories, a separate quad class was added for the first time. The race began on January 3, 2009, and took place across Argentina and Chile...
.
He drove a Proton Satria Neo Super 2000
Super 2000
Super 2000, also known as S2000, is an FIA specification and classification for production based race cars. The specification is split to cover both rally and touring car racing. Super 2000 rally cars are also permitted to compete in Super 2000 World Rally Championship events...
at the Indonesian leg of the APRC 2009.