Colin McRae Vision joins RallyScotlandposted in RSCOT01 | 09 | 2011
THE COLIN McRAE VISION, the charity set up in memory of the legendary world rally champ to support underprivileged children, has officially joined forces with RallyScotland.
To mark the union, Colin's dad Jimmy — the five-times British champ — will drive Colin's Subaru Legacy (pictured), in which he won the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Championship titles, as the ‘Zero’ course car on the October 7-9 event.
The Colin McRae Vision was launched in 2008 to promote educational and health programmes for children. Founded in memory of the world’s most famous rally driver, it has made donations of more than £50,000 in the UK and overseas in the last 12 months alone.
During October’s Rallyscotland — the penultimate round of the Intercontinental Rally Championship — it will make further donations to worthy causes nominated by Perthshire and Stirlingshire councils.
In addition, the Vision’s own retail unit will be present during the event to generate funds from the public.
“It’s quite appropriate that I’ll be driving the Legacy as it’s 20 years since Colin won his first British title and 30 years since I won my first British title," Lanark veteran McRae snr explained today.
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“I’m really looking forward to this event. The Legacy was a big car to throw around the forests but the memories that people will have of it with Colin at the wheel, sideways, the famous colour scheme and that very distinctive engine note should hopefully put a smile on quite a few faces.
“RallyScotland’s simply a great event for the country with many of the top international stars putting on a show on what the drivers and public regard as the best competitive stages about.
I have a lot of knowledge of the stages around Perth from my own rallying days and the McRae Stages event, but I haven’t been down in the Carron Valley here in Lanarkshire for 20 or more years.
"Colin’s brother Alister (also a past British Rally Champion) is almost certainly going to be taking part in the event so hopefully this will help add more interest around what we are trying to achieve.
“I’m sure Colin probably didn’t realise just how popular he was, but through his popularity we’ve been able to do quite a bit recently. When we set up the Vision charity we could see there was an opportunity to put money back into kids and help with their health and education – things that Colin was always behind.”
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Jim McGill
Photo: LAT