McRae: I can Still Drive Quickly

The 1995 world champion is returning to the sport in a one-off drive with Skoda, but is driving a car that has yet to finish in the top eight this season.

The team currently lie sixth in the manufacturers' championship and have failed to score any manufacturers points for the last five events.

However, McRae is hopeful he can reverse that trend.

McRae said: "I'm not really thinking much about a specific result but I'd like to think that, even having been out of the WRC for a while, I can still drive a car quickly enough to get well into the Top 10.

"I'm eager to get back into competing again and to do so on my home event is something very special for both Nicky and myself. I'm looking forward to working with Skoda Motorsport and helping to push the development of the Fabia WRC 05 along in a positive way."

McRae's preparations for his return have continued this week with a major test programme in Scotland. He will conclude his programme when he drives the Fabia WRC 05 as the course car on Saturday's Park Systems Rally that takes place near Dumfries.

Skoda Motorsport chief Martin Muehlmeier, said: "I think that everyone is very excited about this event and the amount of interest being shown in Skoda shows we made a good choice of driver. I hope that we can now get the result that everyone wants."