Just days after starting his British adventure, Max McRae has confirmed he will return to this year’s Junior European Rally Championship to finish the job he started last season.
The 19-year-old Scot endured a trying rookie season in the Junior ERC, but demonstrated plenty of pace and potential – and would have won Rally Liepajā had it not been for a minor timing error.
This time around he’s back with Hungarian team Tagai Racing Technology. He tested the Peugeot 208 Rally4 he’ll be using in Hungary on Tuesday.
“The car felt good,” said DirtFish-backed McRae, who will be co-driven by Cameron Fair. “We did 60 or 70 kilometres of running on a gravel road which is representative of the opening round (next month’s Rally Hungary). There had been a few cars running on the stage, so it was fairly rutted in places and that’s what we needed. The car dealt with all of that really well.”
McRae has been testing his new Peugeot 208 Rally4 ahead of next month's Rally Hungary
Following a calendar overhaul, McRae’s Junior ERC program will feature just one event he tackled last season – fortunately, it’s one of his favourites.
“Sweden,” he said. “I really enjoyed that event, definitely one of the highlights from last year.
“I learned a lot last year and this is the time to put those lessons into practice. I’m actually quite happy with the calendar changes, it means the roads are new for most of the crews and we could see from last year, when the events were new for everybody I went pretty well. I’m looking forward to all the events, as you can imagine, but places like Gran Canaria – where we’ll be on almost circuit-style roads for the first time – and Estonia are the standouts. Estonia is an event where we’ve all watched the cars flying year-after-year. I can’t wait to get out there and get the Peugeot on those roads.”
McRae’s first competitive outing aboard the 208 is next month’s Junior ERC opener, Rally Hungary (April 12-14).
