One young driver on a charge is Lanarkshire's Alick Kerr who goes into the Perthshire event on the back of one of his best results to date - an impressive fourth overall on last weekend's Autumn Stages in Dumfriesshire in his Ford Fiesta ST.

“We need other people to run into difficulty if we are to have a chance of taking the Scottish junior title,” said Kerr, “but as long as we get a sensible finish we have a good chance of winning our championship class.”

As a precursor to the main event, a guest forum is being held on Friday night at Rally HQ at Perth racecourse, featuring a number of the top stars. While tickets are limited and will be sold on a first come first serve basis, a giant screen will relay the forum to those outside the venue.

All proceeds from the forum - which starts at 8.30pm - will go to the McRae Vision Trust, established to help up and coming young rally drivers, and to support social projects for children.