The 19-year-old impressed with his speed on all six Junior ERC events in 2023 but his bid, which he split between Opel Corsa and Peugeot 208 power, didn’t always go to plan for the Scottish driver, the grandson of Jimmy McRae and nephew of the late Colin McRae.
In his first season of international competition, McRae, who was co-driven by Irishman Mac Kierans, led the young driver category on selected events, won stages and held podium places before encountering delays. As a result, The Racing Factory driver was forced to settle for seventh in the final championship standings.
“It’s been a crazy year because we’ve had no results out of six rounds in that we haven’t stood on the podium,” said McRae. “But we’ve finished our first year in Europe and gained heaps of experience and learned so much. The speed is there to win, it just needs to come together, and we need some luck on our side.
“We’d like to [continue in Junior ERC] but we just need to see what budget we can get together to sort out next year.”
McRae was chasing down a Junior ERC podium finish on Rally Hungary earlier this month when he was struck by more bad luck on the Nyíregyháza street stage held prior to the Saturday midday service halt.
“Going down the street the [front-right] wheel fell off, there was nothing I could do,” McRae said. “It’s tough, it just took off and we stayed still.”
Finland
Italy
Hungary