Alister enjoyed success from the moment he started competing, first in motorcycle trials, then motocross and then in cars. He won his class title in his first year in the Scottish Rally Championship and, in 1992, was identified as Britain’s most promising up-and-coming talent when he was awarded the prestigious Shell Scholarship.
That promise was soon turned into hard results as he notched up championship, outright and class wins in the World, Asia-Pacific, British and Scottish Championships, and in 1998 he earned a major breakthrough when he was awarded a one-off drive with the factory-backed Subaru World Rally Team in Britain.
Undaunted by the step up, he hammered home his reputation as a star of the future by running in second overall and challenging for the lead until an electrical failure left him competing in darkness and fog with no lights. No matter, he had laid down a marker of his ability, stunning the championship’s regular drivers with his pace.
Sure enough, Korean car manufacturing giant Hyundai wasted no time in snapping the Scot up, running him to several victories in the Formula Two category before selecting him to spearhead its assault on the full World Rally Championship the following season.
Over the next two years with Hyundai, Alister cemented his reputation as one
of the sport’s fastest young drivers as well as establishing a reputation
as an excellent test and development driver. These skills soon attracted widespread
interest from rival teams and, in 2002, he was signed on a long-term deal by
the world title-winning Mitsubishi squad.
But when the Japanese company unexpectedly pulled out of the World Rally Championship
in 2003 because its World Rally Car lacked competitiveness, Alister was left
on the sidelines. Having built up an incredible amount of experience on his
69 world championship outings, his full potential was still waiting to be tapped.
This year, Alister returns to the fray in the FIA World Championship of Production Cars, a feeder category to the full World Rally Championship. Co-driven by long-term partner David Senior, he plans to use the ultra-competitive series to demonstrate his talent to the watching World Rally Championship team managers.
Charged with navigating Alister McRae around the stages, David Senior started out marshalling on road rallies as a 15-year-old in 1979. That early enthusiasm has stood him in good stead as his career has progressed, as he has carved out a reputation of one of the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic co-drivers in the sport.
Showing immediate co-driving promise as he started navigating on road rallies, David quickly worked his way up through the ranks. Broadening his experience by co-driving for more than 50 drivers on his way to the top, he wasted no time in forging a partnership with Alister McRae when the opportunity arose.
The pair made their world championship debut in Britain in 1991 and have competed
together on the international stage ever since, enjoying multiple championship,
outright and class victories. They have formed an intuitive bond during their
69 WRC events together that marks them out as the perfect partnership in their
quest to win the FIA World Championship of Production Cars.
