10:03am Saturday 30th August 2008
By Roots Rocker
Hundreds of motor racing fans will head to Banbury today to celebrate the life of rally driver Colin McRae by setting off on a 300-mile rally.
A convoy of Subarus will leave McRae's home town of Lanark to travel to the base of the Subaru World Rally Team, based in Oxfordshire.
McRae, 39, died along with his five-year-old son Johnny when the helicopter he was flying crashed in September last year.
Family friend Ben Porcelli, six, and Graeme Duncan, 37, were also killed in the crash near to McRae's home.
McRae's father Jimmy is expected to lead the "McRae Gathering" convoy in one of Colin's original cars.
It will travel south and is expected to stretch for more than 10 miles, involving 700 cars, by the time it reaches Birmingham.
On Sunday, 1,300 cars are expected to gather at the Subaru World Rally Team's base before setting off north again in a 20-mile long convoy.
They will drive to the Prodrive test track in Warwickshire where they aim to break two official Guinness World Records.
The cars will write out "Colin McRae" in a sign nearly half a mile long that will be visible to passengers landing at Birmingham airport.
They will then form a parade of 1,300 Subarus.
Grant Hendry, one of the organisers, urged people to support the event.
He said: "It would be great to see people cheering us along.
"When the idea of the convoy to commemorate the life of Colin was born, we never dreamt 1,300 Subarus would be taking part.
"We even have Subarus joining us from all over Europe, from Poland and the Ukraine to France and Spain, while some fans are flying in especially from Australia and Argentina to be part of this memorable occasion."
Organisers said that the McRae Gathering has already raised more than £25,000 for the McRae family's officially nominated charities and is hoping to raise more money along the route.
Father-of-two McRae was regarded as a local hero in his hometown of Lanark after winning the World Rally Championship in 1995.
He achieved 25 WRC wins in his lengthy racing career and gave his name to a hit computer game.
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