The McDonald and Munro Speyside Stages will launch the Scottish Rally Championship, in its third year of partnership with Carbon Positive Motorsport.
The Asset Alliance Group Scottish Rally Championship bursts into life this weekend on the Speyside Stages, in its third year of partnering with Carbon Positive Motorsport. During that time the event has offset over 22,000 Kg CO2e, using a local world class project based near Loch Ness, in the Scottish Highlands.
The event has become the first event of The Asset Alliance Group sponsored Scottish Rally Championship season, due to the Snowman Rally moving its traditional season starting date back to the final event of the season in October.
Willie Paterson CEO of the championship sponsors The Asset Alliance Group joins Carbon Positive Motorsport this year as an ambassador.
The MacDonald and Munro Speyside stages has historically been one of the most entered events by Carbon Positive Motorsport ambassadors, and this year sees again a strong entry promoting the positive about motorsport initiative.
All ambassadors this year are competing with their carbon emissions 200% offset, using Carbon Positive Motorsport's new Offset Your Season package. Offset Your Season is a quick and simple way for competitors to offset their entire season's CO2 emissions based on their estimated fuel usage.
Joining Carbon Positive Motorsport for the first time as a full season is championship sponsor Willie Patterson. Willie first supported the initiative in last year’s Mull Rally where he was one of six event enviro ambassadors, promoting the event's sustainability message of Protect, Respect and Enjoy.
Record breaking event winner and former SRC and BRC champion, David Bogie returns to the Speyside Stages as an ambassador for Carbon Positive Motorsport.
Willie will be joining long standing ambassadors Jock Armstrong, John Wink, and David Bogie. David himself is returning to the event that he has won more times than anyone else with a new car, whilst Jock and John return to the series as strong championship contenders again this year.
John Wink returns to the championship in the third year of being an ambassador for Carbon Positive Motorsport.
The McDonald and Munro Speyside stages is also the event of the year that sees John's regular co driver Neil Shanks leave the co-driver’s seat in order to be Clerk of the Course for the event. This year John will once again be co-driven by Will Atkins.
Returning to the event are Viking Offshore sponsored drivers Scott MacBeth and Brett Mackenzie, both competing this year with their carbon emissions offset by sponsor Viking Offshore, who recently announced that all their sponsored drivers will compete this year using Carbon Positive Motorsport's Offset Your Season package.
Local driver Brett Mackenzie, co-driven by Barry Young, competes with his Carbon Emissions offset by sponsor Viking Offshore.
Brett Mackenzie and Carbon Positive Motorsport ambassador Barry Young are also backed by Viking Offshore. Both will be hoping to build on an impressive run at the Kinloss stages earlier this year, and to have more luck than at last year’s rally, which saw them blow their rear diff early on the event.
Reigning Scottish Ladies champion Meghan O'Kane starts the rally with a new Fiesta R2.
Meghan O'Kane won a full season of 200% offsetting as part of the Carbon Positive Motorsport SRC ladies award for 2023. Following an accident on Kinloss Stages, she has had a huge amount of work to do to rebuild her new Fiesta R2 for the start of the season. She said, "I’m really looking forward to the season starting again! The new car is left hand drive so that will definitely take a bit of getting used to, but I'm excited to get going!"
Local driver Kenny Wood returns to the championship in his ‘The Wheel Specialist’ backed BMW.
Carbon Positive Motorsport founding director Paul Glass added, "We are very proud to work with The McDonald and Munro Speyside Stages for the third year of our partnership. With the Snowman Rally moving to the end of the season this year, we have all been eagerly awaiting the start of The Asset Alliance Group Scottish Rally Championship. My congratulations to the event organisers for their hard work in putting on the event in very challenging circumstances.
"I’m especially looking forward to attending the event this year with Cat Lund who works with us on our initiative, so she can see for herself just how spectacular and competitive the championship is on one of the best events of the year.
"As I plan to return to the stages myself with a special new car that’s taken several years to build, I’m hoping to persuade Cat to co-drive for me on some SRC events later this year all being well - and the Speyside is a great event to showcase the SRC.
"I wish all competitors in this year’s championship a safe and successful season ahead."
More information on The McDonald and Munro Speyside Stages can be found at www.speyside-stages.co.uk
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