Interviews// Colin McRae - Life, Times and Gaming

SPOnG: Do you miss the WRC?

Colin McRae: Yes, for sure – you miss bits of it. There’s bits you certainly don’t miss. You miss the competitive side of it, working with the top professional guys, but you get a bit of that going back to cross-country stuff – you’ve got the competitive side and you’re working with top teams. It just doesn’t take up so much time, which is quite nice.

SPOnG: Have you thought about doing national rallying?

Colin McRae: Not really, no. You’d still rather be at the top level, with the right team. We have our own event that we sponsor every September, in Scotland, so I always do that one, and it’s a real fun weekend. Campbell (Roy, a member of McRae's management team) and I did an event in the Isle of Man two weeks ago which, again, was to keep the eye in, and was a fun, relaxed event to do just over a weekend.

SPOnG: You’ve also talked in the past about doing some track racing.

Colin McRae: I did Le Mans in 2004, with Ferrari, then three Porsche Cup races since then, but that’s really it. I quite enjoy circuit racing, but you’ve really got to commit to do a full programme. To do one-offs is really tough, because everyone expects you to perform. I’ve achieved relatively good results – I was on the podium at Le Mans for the first time, which was a great achievement. The Porsche Cup stuff is a bit more tricky. You mind your own business and somebody hits you from behind, and it’s all over.

SPOnG: And you won the Race of Champions

Colin McRae: Yeah, a long time ago – I’ve been trying ever since, but haven’t quite managed it again. Last year, we got better. The year before, Team Scotland/Team UK was David Coulthard and I. Last year, they managed to get England and Scotland in a team and we performed fairly well – a lot better than the first year. Hopefully, this year at Wembley, we’ll be in a position to take the Nations’ Cup – I’m going to put in a serious bit of practice before then.

SPOnG: Looking back, you have 25 WRC wins. Is that still the record?

Colin McRae: Unfortunately, Loeb has blown that out of the water, and Carlos Sainz also beat it by one, because he got called back in to stand in for three events and he won one of them. But it might not be finished – you never know. There might be an opportunity in the next year or so.