Alister McRae Scotsman Alister McRae will return to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge with Proton later this month – promising a big push in an effort to better the second place he achieved on his home international last season.

McRae has been focused on this year’s Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, where he came within an ace of clinching a home win for the Proton in Malaysia, but from October 15-17 he will be focused completely on the penultimate round of the IRC.

McRae, who will be partnered in the Proton team by recently crowned British Rally Champion Keith Cronin, said: ‘I haven’t competed in front of the Scottish fans since last year’s rally so it’s obviously going to be very special for me to be there.

“It’s a massive sporting event for the whole country to come and enjoy with a fantastic backdrop, great access for the public, superb organisation and some of the most demanding stages any rally driver will ever face.”

Running a month earlier, the organisers of Rally of Scotland are hoping to avoid the wet weather which marred last year’s inaugural event.

“It’s going to be an awesome spectacle for the fans,” said McRae. “There are going to be way more S2000 cars than in 2009 and they will all be going extremely quickly which will make repeating the second place I achieved last year very difficult.

“It’ll be important to push as hard as possible from the word ‘go’ to hopefully stay in touch as much as possible starting the final day and, from there, who knows what could happen.

“I know most of the stages well from my earlier career which could be an advantage, particularly if we get a bit of good old fashioned drizzle which is always a possibility at this time of year!”

Source: David Evans – Autosport.com