For years, it’s something she actively avoided. Despite the bloodline, rallying – let alone competing – just was not part of her life.
“I think at some sort of subconscious level, there was part of me that just avoided rallying for a long time,” Hollie McRae tells DirtFish, “because after losing dad, we didn’t attend many events, so it did feel quite foreign to me.
“But I think it was also this subconscious thought of, if I don’t try, I can’t be like the bad McRae. I had big shoes to fill and I just suddenly thought, I’m never going to be the next world champion, so I don’t really know how else to fit into it. And because of that, I probably tried lots of other things before being brought back to motorsport.”
That however has changed in recent years, with Hollie’s interest growing and growing.
Her way has been through the media – establishing her own company specialising in social media and presenting.
She continues: “But the fact that I’ve been able to find my way back to the sport in a way that suits me through the media stuff has been really special. I left the McRae Rally Challenge last time [in 2022] after the Saturday because I had to go and graduate for my primary education course. It was a totally different journey from what I’m now doing.
“But having found my way back into the sport in a way that suits me has been really special because I think it proves to other people, and to me, that I’m doing it from an internal drive. It’s not to try and match whatever any other McRae’s done in the past.”
The arrival of this September’s McRae Rally Challenge will be a symbolic moment in that regard. But perhaps mostly because it won’t just be Jimmy, Alister and Max on the entry list.
For the very first time, Hollie will be competing – jumping into a yet-to-be specified car with her gramps, Jimmy.
“I feel like it’s been a long time coming, and it’s definitely one of the questions I get asked most whenever I’m at an event: when are we going to see you driving a rally car?” Hollie says.
“Co-driving was actually first discussed between gramps and I two years ago for Rally Legend. When that was first mentioned, I got quite excited about it, and I thought it would be a nice thing to do with my grandpa. But as the event got closer and closer, the things that the event wanted me to do, social media-wise, were just getting bigger and bigger.”
Hollie sat with her uncle Alister during a Legends event in Sweden, but has never actually competed in rallying before
The idea was therefore parked, but hadn’t totally left Jimmy’s mind. Having spent the day with his granddaughter at last month’s European Rally Championship opener, Rally Sierra Morena, he sent her a text message: would you like to co-drive for me at the McRae Rally Challenge?
“Considering it’s something I’d geared myself up for before and it didn’t happen, and it would be a nice way to experience a very special event, I thought why not,” Hollie smiles. “We’ll see how it goes!”
September 20-21 will clearly be an emotional weekend for Jimmy, who of course does have experience of sitting in a rally car with both of Hollie’s parents before.
“I co-drove for Colin at the Galloway Hills – when we first bought him the Nova, I said I would do the first rally with him,” Jimmy tells DirtFish.
“And in the first few stages, he was nervous, I was nervous, I was trying to slow him down, but then there was a part of one of the stages that I knew pretty well. It was all pretty fast downhill. And I said, ‘go on, go on, it’s all right here, go on, it’s all right here!’. He turned and looked at me and said, ‘Are you alright?'”
Suffice to say Colin would forge a career with Derek Ringer and Nicky Grist instead. But what about Jimmy bringing Hollie in later this year – it might sound obvious, but why did that appeal to him?
It's obviously in her bloodJimmy McRae
“We saw that Hollie had applied for a competition licence and she was getting more and more interested in it. Now that she’s doing all the media stuff, maybe get her in the seat and let her see what it’s really like,” he replies.
“Max will be doing it, Alister will be doing it, I’m doing it. It’s just a great opportunity for Hollie to get involved.
“What she’s done in the last two years is just unbelievable,” Jimmy adds. “She knows more about the sport now than I do, and I’ve been in it for… well, a few years.
“It’s obviously in her blood.”
The million-dollar question is: will Hollie ever drive a rally car?
Hollie has driven at DirtFish Rally School before, which prepped her well for any future outing
“I feel like if you’d asked me that question a year ago, I’d have laughed, turned bright red and run in the opposite direction. But the more I am getting involved, the more the intrigue is there,” she reveals.
“I think 2025 is the year of taking on different opportunities and trying to get over this fear of spectators. I’ve literally said for the last two years – my answer has been if there is a rally with no spectators, I would do it tomorrow.
“But the idea of people watching me be slow in a rally car puts the fear of God into me. But that’s not going to change if I don’t give it a go.”
