Australian-based Scottish former rally driver Alister McRae, younger brother of the late rally star Colin McRae (World Rally Champion in 1995), has announced he will join the FIA World Rallycross Championship for its last four rounds starting from the very next race at Lohéac, France, in just under two weeks (1-3 September), at the wheel of LOCO Energy World RX Team‘s VW Polo Supercar, left vacant by Englishman Guy Wilks.
McRae’s rally career includes 75 WRC starts with Subaru, Mitsubishi and Hyundai, several rounds in the Chinese Rally Championship, the Dakar Rally as well as contesting the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, which he won in 2011.
After having competed in the first eight rounds of this year’s World RX series, Guy Wilks has decided to vacate his seat, and McRae will effectively replace him not just in France, but also in the three remaining races in Latvia (15-17 September), Germany (29 Sep-1 October) and the season finale in South Africa (17-19 November).
“I decided to vacate the seat with LOCO from Canada onwards, explained Wilks.
“I hope to be back in World RX again soon but in the meantime, I wish Alister the best of luck – he is a talent behind the wheel so it will be interesting to watch how he gets on in RX. I would just like to part by thanking the team members who helped until this point – they were great.”
An excited McRae, meanwhile, reckons the opportunity he’s been given to drive a WRX Supercar is none to be missed:
“World RX is amazingly competitive so it’s going to be a baptism of fire, but something I’m really looking forward to. I’m really excited to be running in Loheac – I expect the weekend is going to be one big learning curve but I can’t wait to get started.”
Action at Loheac begins with the first free practice session on Friday afternoon, 17:30.
