IRC: Colin McRae Vision links up with Rally of Scotland

The RACMSA Rally of Scotland has officially joined forces with Colin McRae Vision - the charity set up in memory of the legendary Scottish rallying hero to support underprivileged children, it has been announced.

Furthermore, Colin's father Jimmy, himself a five times British Rally Champion, will drive the 'Zero' course car on the event this October. He will use one of Colin's first and best remembered competition cars, the Subaru Legacy in which he won the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Championship titles.

Colin McRae Vision was launched in 2008 to promote educational and health programmes for children. Founded in memory of the world's most famous rally driver - and also the 1995 World Rally Champion - it has made donations of more than ?50,000 in the UK and overseas in the last 12 months alone.

During October's Rally of Scotland, Britain's only round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, it will make further donations to worthy causes nominated by Perthshire and Stirlingshire councils - it is through both counties that the rally will predominantly run. In addition, the Vision's own retail unit will be present during the event to generate funds from the public.

"It's quite appropriate that I'll be driving the Legacy as it's 20 years since Colin won his first British title and 30 years since I won my first British title," said Jimmy. "I'm really looking forward to this event. The Legacy was a big car to throw around the forests but the memories that people will have of it with Colin at the wheel, sideways, the famous colour scheme and that very distinctive engine note should hopefully put a smile on quite a few faces.

"Rally of Scotland's simply a great event for the country with many of the top international stars putting on a show on what the drivers and public regard as the best competitive stages about. I have a lot of knowledge of the stages around Perth from my own rallying days and the McRae Stages event but I haven't been down in the Carron Valley here in Lanarkshire for 20 or more years. Colin's brother Alister [also a past British Rally Champion] is almost certainly going to be taking part in the event so hopefully this will help add more interest around what we are trying to achieve."

McRae Snr added: "I'm sure Colin probably didn't realise just how popular he was but through his popularity we've been able to do quite a bit recently. When we set up the Vision charity we could see there was an opportunity to put money back into kids and help with their health and education - things that Colin was always behind."

Andrew Coe, Chief Executive of International Motor Sports (IMS) that organises the Rally of Scotland, continued: "We are absolutely delighted to be supporting Colin McRae Vision for 2011 - it is a wonderfully moving and noble charity and we sincerely hope our event can help raise further awareness and support for the tremendous work it carries out.

"We are also deeply honoured that Jimmy McRae will in effect be leading the field through each stage in that famous Subaru Legacy of Colin's from the early Nineties. It is sure to be a hugely emotional moment for many of the thousands of fans out on the stages during the weekend."