16 July 2026 / By David Ferguson
THERE is a reputation often melded to motorsport champions that can be wrapped up in one word: ruthless.
As we look ahead to the 80th RSAC Scottish Rally in Dalbeattie many drivers and co-drivers will currently be thinking about how to get ‘in the zone’ come Saturday morning and claim their best result, and you probably expect a particularly self-obsessed mindset from the guys at the top of the field.
But piloting the no1 car around the Dumfries and Galloway forests will be a 22-year-old who surprised me a little this week when he explained that he won’t be taking Asset Alliance Scottish Rally Championship (SRC) points because he doesn’t want to lose friends.
Of course, it makes sense as Max McRae’s focus is on the British Rally Championship (BRC) and there is a difference between being ruthless in a car and out, but hearing an ambitious rally driver say his priority is keeping friends is a bit novel.
‘If we did score points, there’d be some unhappy faces’
“We are out to win the rally, no doubt, and once we’re in the car on Saturday our whole focus will be on doing everything we can to achieve that,” said Max, unequivocally, of the focus for him and co-driver Cammy Fair.
“I’m really looking forward to my first SRC event, but we’re not taking points if we do well because the guys competing are in the middle of a really good championship and it wouldn’t be fair to get in amongst that while we’re not competing for the title.
“I’m having great fun this year and we want to prepare ourselves the best we can for the return to the British Championship. We’ve not had an awful lot of seat time on gravel and the next round of the BRC – the Voly Grampian Forest Stages – will be quite an important round, with some big names coming over ahead of it becoming a WRC round next year.
“So, there’s no point in us going for points this weekend and interfering with the title fight going on inside the SRC. If we did go well and score points, there’d be some unhappy faces, and if people come to the Grampian who aren’t competing for the British Championship and scored points that hindered our chances, I’d not be happy.
“It is just part of the game sometimes, so you accept it, but I think it’s better to just keep on the nice side of people because you never know when you might need help from someone. It’s just more of a sportsmanlike thing to do, I think.”
I put my mild surprise down to the fact that I caught ‘Rush’ on the BBC this week for the umpteenth time, the film which retold the classic, and at times vicious, F1 battle between Niki Lauda James Hunt.
The young Scot, like his father and former British Champion Alister, has a very relaxed approach, at least out of the car. Being brought up in Perth, Australia might be a factor in that for the youngster. And while the ruthless characters often attract the bigger headlines there are plenty of top-performing athletes who have shown it is possible to blend a great outlook on life with high-quality skills and become a champion. Jim Clark is one that springs to mind and the fact that the rally bearing his name is where McRae laid down the gauntlet to the British field this year is a neat twist.
The BRC will shortly head into an intriguing denouement with the Carlisle Stages having been cancelled and so the JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion (4-6 September) now running as a double-header and counting as rounds four and five, after the Grampian (7 August) and before the finale, the Lewis & Hunter Cambrian Rally on 24 October.
Scottish battles will rage in Dumfries and Galloway forests
In the Scottish title race, Mark McCulloch and Michael Hendry lead the way in their Proton Satria Evo, and set off in car no4, with Borderer Garry Pearson and Jack Morton following McRae and Fair, and local duo Jock Armstrong and Owen Paterson out third in their Subaru.
With Scott McBeth, currently second in the SRC, not running this weekend, Pearson will fancy his chances back in his familiar M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2, after a Skoda win in Argyll, in leapfrogging to the top of the leaderboard on Saturday.
Craig Rutherford and Tom Hynd lead both the Oakbank SRC Challengers and G&M Mechanical Services 2WD Championships, but they are being chased by Mike Stuart and Clare Fraser, and many others in a hugely competitive field.
Robbie Wood, with Steven Brown on the notes, heads the Questmead SRC Juniors after four rounds, and a good finish in round five would help him extend that advantage, while John Rintoul and Ross Hynd lead the Haddo Energy SRC Super Seniors with three wins in the bag, and have switched back to the Ford Escort Mk2 after using a Subaru Legacy on the Tarmac.
In the Groundwater Lift Trucks Subaru Cup, Mike Grant’s success in Argyll has him in charge but he and Graham Kelman are preparing for a battle with Dumfries and Galloway pair Martin Lock and Paul Gribben, and others, this weekend.
‘We have package with Škoda and Pirelli that can win championship’
Back at the top of the field, McRae says he is relishing the chance to take part in another first, once he gets clear of the day job at the Knockhill Racing Circuit in Fife, where he does instructing, marshalling, sets up tracks for touring car and bike racing, and many other tasks in between.
“Working at Knockhill around different kinds of motorsport, in this sunshine, is quite a privilege,” he said, “but, yeah, I can’t wait to get back in the car myself this weekend.
“I’m loving competing in the British and taking on new rallies. The end of last year, getting three podiums, gave us an idea of how competitive we could be and after winning the Jim Clark Rally to go second in the BRC (pictured above) we know that we’ve got the package with the Škoda and Pirelli tyres to win the championship.
“But, I also know that I’m young, it’s early in my career and still learning as we go and having the capabilities to win as title is only part of the story.
“The British Championship is a very tough competition with some great crews and you need a bit of luck on your side. So, we’ll see how we go … but, yes, we’re out to win it.”