New Scottish Motorsport Festival

The MSA has launched a brand new Scottish Motorsport Festival – celebrating Scottish Formula One World Championship titles, Indianapolis 500 victories, Le Mans 24 Hours wins, World Rally Championship crowns and much more. The week of events (1-9 October 2011), taking place all over Scotland from Knockhill Circuit to Stirling Castle will be book-ended by the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally and the RACMSA Rally of Scotland (7-9 Oct), two of the country’s premier sporting events. Organisers say: "The newly created Scottish Motorsport Festival will feature lots of highlights and activities. There will be star driver forums; the best of Scottish rally talent competing in the final round of the Scottish Rally Championship on the McRae Stages; an introduction to karting for schools; a special autotest between the media and leading competitors from the Intercontinental Rally Challenge; Scottish debuts for some of the late Colin McRae’s car collection; the excitement and speed of Europe’s best crews tackling the RACMSA Rally of Scotland stages; the launch of a new rally championship for 14-17 year old children at Scone Palace; plus the final round of the Scottish Motor Racing Club’s year at the Knockhill circuit. All these experiences give the Festival an exciting and packed programme with something for everyone to enjoy. As well as these sporting events, there will be engineering tours and visits to top racing and rallying teams by university students studying relevant courses." Five times British Rally Champion, Jimmy McRae said: “To have a motor sport festival that is designed to further promote all the opportunities that exist within our sport means that we look to grow on Scotland’s success into the future. That so many of the activities include kids is one of the reason that the Colin McRae Vision Charity is supporting this initiative as this is the reason for the charity, but it is also where the future champions will come from.” The Festival starts with an all-star forum run by Colin McRae Vision on the eve of the McRae Stages Rally on Friday 30 September at 8.30pm. Those attending the forum include 1984 World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist (the original ‘Stig’!) and 2004 World Rally Champion co-driver Phil Mills. The following day Blomqvist will take part in the Historic section of the McRae Stages before the Scottish Rally Championship crews take to the stages for the last round of their eight-rally season. Forthside Park in Stirling sees the Intercontinental Rally Challenge stars take on a new challenge with an autotest against their media counterparts. Autotesting is one of the cheapest forms of motor sport to enter and the stars from Skoda, Peugeot, Proton and Citroen will use road cars in these maneuverability tests on the Tuesday evening (4 Oct). Once back in their rally cars, the IRC crews will leave Stirling Castle on Friday night (7 Oct) to tackle two and a half days of flat out motoring over the world famous stages of Perthshire, Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire to find the winner of Rally of Scotland. The spectacular Stirling Castle start will feature motorbike trials demonstrations as well as an opportunity for fans to see the Colin McRae R4 rally car – for the first time in Scotland. There is also an autograph session during which fans can meet the very best rally drivers Europe has to offer. And on Sunday 9 October, the Knockhill Race Circuit in Fife hosts the final race weekend of the Scottish Motor Racing Club’s busy season. An action-packed afternoon of racing will feature Scottish Formula Ford, Legends, Mini Cooper, Sports & Saloon and Classic Sports & Saloon championships. With one eye on the future, the Scottish Motorsport Festival will culminate at Scone Palace on Sunday evening (9 Oct) with a sneak preview of a new rally championship aimed at finding the next Scottish champion. To be introduced in 2012, the championship is for 1000cc cars driven by children aged from 14-17 years of age. The enormous full schedule of events and timings are available from the new Scottish Motorsport Festival website: www.scottishmotorsportfestival.co.uk. It will be a stella event we are sure and we're really pleased to support it at Road.