Max McRae ended his 2025 season on a high with a maiden British Rally Championship victory
Words by Luke Barry
Max McRae described his maiden British Rally Championship victory at last weekend’s Cambrian Rally as a ‘breakthrough’ as he looks ahead to 2026.
The 21-year-old was fastest on the first competitive stage as he debuted a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 on gravel, and looked to be in control before a puncture towards the end of stage five cost him 12s – and the lead – to M-Sport driver Romet Jürgenson.
Jürgenson then went quickest again on the penultimate stage to lead McRae by 3.5s, but the Scot turned the tables to beat everyone by 4.5s – and Jürgenson by 9.1s as he lacked confidence and battled a small handbrake issue – and seal his maiden BRC win.
It came five weeks after McRae’s very first outright win at the McRae Rally Challenge.
“It was really cool that we’d had that bit of extra pressure and come away with the result,” McRae said. “Without the issue on the first stage of the afternoon, I feel like we had the event under control.
McRae came from behind to snare a confidence-boosting victory in the Welsh forests
“This really felt like a breakthrough rally. The win at Knockhill last month was nice, but this was special. The last McRae to win a BRC round was my dad, when he won the Scottish in 1998. That’s like 27 years ago… I’ll try not to leave it so long next time!
“It’s also really cool to be talking about me winning a rally in this part of the world, fastest in Clocaenog stage… it was exactly this forest where Colin won the world championship 30 years ago,” McRae added.
“It’s a special day for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is the confidence this gives me. It was hailing when we were coming through that final stage, I knew what was on the line and we just pushed on and did the job. Everybody knows what Romet’s about and the speed he has, so to beat him on raw pace is nice. Very nice.”
Words:Luke Barry
Publish Date October 27, 2025 DirtFish
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