Max McRae’s relaxed about the situation. He’s not stressing. He knows he’s got time. And he knows he’s still got the march on Dad and his Uncle. Gramps? Not so much, Jimmy’s still the pacesetter in terms of the first win in the McRae dynasty.
Jimmy won Scotland’s Arbroath Stages within a year of taking up rallying in 1974.
Colin won in his third season in the sport, taking the Daihatsu Tweedies Stages aboard a Nissan 240RS in 1988, while Alister was just into his fourth year of driving when he took the 1992 Lakeland Stages in a Group N Ford Sierra Cosworth 4×4.
Last weekend was the second anniversary of Max McRae taking to the stages. Two years on from driving the Bakers Hill event in Western Australia in a Ford Fiesta (where he retired with a gearbox problem), the 17-year-old McRae Junior Junior dominated the Winvale Park Stages in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
Leading by half a minute with three stages remaining – having won five from six – McRae went for the gas coming out of a slow corner.
“There was a big knocking noise,” he told DirtFish. “Basically, we lost all drive.
“Of course, it’s disappointing not to take the win, but that’s just the way it is. It’ll come. It’ll happen.”
One thing which Sunday did prove is McRae’s speed.
There’s no doubt the Forest Rally is going to be a step-up in terms of competition and pace being a round of the ARC as wellMax McRae
“The pace is the real positive here,” he said. “We were winning stages by a good margin, and everything felt like it had taken a real step forwards from last year. The pace notes I’m working on with my co-driver Mac [Kierans] have improved tremendously and everything just feels like it’s really working now.”
Next up, the big step: the Forest Rally (May 20-22) runs in conjunction with the nationwide Australian Rally Championship.
Max added: “There’s no doubt the Forest Rally is going to be a step-up in terms of competition and pace being a round of the ARC as well. It’ll be great to see where we are against the other Group N cars and how we’re going to stack up against the AP4 cars out there.
“Bakers Hill was only my third start in the Subaru and going down to Nannup [for Forest Rally] will be my first time in a Group N car against the ARC guys. It’s a much longer rally, with 17 stages and almost 200 kilometers of competition and that’s what I’m looking forward to – getting plenty of seat time in the car.
“We might get to do our own test before the event, but we’ll definitely do the [organizer’s] pre-event. It’s a good chance to get out and drive on roads which will be fairly representative. Given that we’re going to have a bigger entry than we had here in Bakers Hill, there’s the chance the stages will be that bit more chopped up and rutted, so it’ll be good to see how our car’s running in those conditions.
“We’re doing the full WA Championship [Western Australian] this year and it would have been great to put some really good points down on the opening event – that’ll just have to wait for round two.”
Forest Rally runs out of Nannup between May 20-22.
He’s not going to catch his Gramps, but there’s time yet for Max to eclipse the early successes of the second generation of Scotland’s most famous rallying family.
