Max McRae will step up to the European Rally Championship in 2025, driving a Tagai Racing Technology-run Citroën C3 Rally2 from May’s Rally Hungary onwards.
The 20-year-old Scot has progressed quickly through the Junior ERC ranks, scoring two wins in a 2024 season where he was never far from the sharp end of the pace and the top of the table. The plan for this year is to build on that experience in a top-class Citroën.
Ahead of the Hungarian event, Max will further his British Rally Championship commitments with an outing on Kielder Carlisle Stages (April 12).
“It’s exciting to be looking forward to such a busy year,” said Max. “Stepping up from Juniors to the ERC is something I really feel ready for. Last season was great, but we were switching a fair bit from the Rally2 car in the BRC to the Rally4 category for Junior [ERC]. Now we’re in the Rally2 for everything – the opportunity to be consistently in the same car is going to help drive the experience and pay forwards.
“On top of that, we’re staying with TRT as well. Those guys are awesome, they work so hard on the car, on everything and knowing we have the same engineers and mechanics around us as last year, some really familiar faces, is great news and, again, good for the consistency.”
The focus for Max and co-driver Cameron Fair right now, however, is the infamous Kielder Forest.
“Everybody seems to have a story about Kielder,” smiled Max. “Certainly my dad and gramps have plenty to tell me about stages like Kershope and Chirdonhead. These are kind of legendary, iconic roads. But for me, I’ve never experienced them first hand. I’ve watched lots of onboards and they look cool and quick, but also pretty tricky.
“We have a test on the Thursday before and that road looks fairly representative of what’s coming on the event.”
Max made a strong start to his BRC campaign last month, where he was immediately on the pace of his rivals at the all-asphalt East Riding Stages Rally. Sadly for the 20-year-old Scot, he injured his left hand and was forced to withdraw from the event.
“I caught a bale which whipped the wheel out of my hand,” he said. “As the wheel spun, one of the spokes hit my hand. I thought it was broken. Fortunately, it wasn’t, there was some ligament damage and bruising to the bones. I’ve been working with the doctors and the hand’s going to be fine for Kielder Carlisle Stages.
“Naturally, the injury wasn’t a great start to the year, but the pace we showed on that first event in the Citroën was really strong. Even with a spin, we were fourth fastest in SS1. I’m kicking myself for that, without it we could have gone fastest in our first ever stage in a C3 Rally2. I’m looking forward to building on that pace through this year.
“Getting some gravel miles down at Kielder Carlisle Stages will give us a good opportunity to understand the car and the MRF tyres in this set-up before Hungary.
“Hungary is one of the events I’m looking forward to, we won Juniors there last year and we can take some good experience, confidence and knowledge of what’s needed to go well there.
“After that, I really enjoyed Poland on the gravel in 2023 and, of course, the home round in Ceredigion. Again, we won that Junior ERC round last time, so it’ll be good to come back with the Rally2.
“We’re running MRF tyres in both the British and European Rally Championship. I drove the gravel tyre a couple of years ago and it was good then – I understand it’s even better now, so I’m looking forward to trying it at Kielder Carlisle Stages.”
