Who Drove?
This feature covers various drivers present and past who have raced for Ecurie Ecosse.
It is perhaps appropriate to talk of two young drivers who are currently racing under the Ecurie Ecosse banner, Alasdair McCaig and Andrew Smith.
Alasdair McCaig
As is not hard to imagine, Alasdair McCaig is the son of Hugh McCaig who reformed the Ecurie Ecosse team in 1983 after it had lain dormant for eleven years. At the time Alasdair was just one year old. Today the Ecurie Ecosse name is again prominent in international racing in the historic Group C events with two of the original Ecosse C2 cars raced by the team in the 1980s.
Alasdair, who is in the property business, started racing when he was eleven years old in the Scottish Cadet Kart Championship. However, when he was fifteen his father sent him to the famous Winfield Racing Drivers School at the Paul Ricard circuit in France where he joined Michael Mallock, son of Ray Mallock who developed the Ecosse cars in the 1980s.
They completely outshone all the other older drivers taking part in their particular course and failed to win the outright prize of a season of racing in France sponsored by Elf because, at 15, they were too young to be eligible for the prize however the experience obviously set up Alasdair for the future.
Two years later, in the year 2000, when he was seventeen, he competed in the Scottish Formula Ford Championship driving a Van Diemen but he decided to move towards sports cars the following season racing in the National Supersports Championship with a Mallock P20. He continued the theme the following year with a Caterham alongside Andrew Smith who also had a Caterham and they have run as a team since then. That year Alasdair was runner up in the Scottish Caterham Roadsport Championship.
It was also his introduction to big time International racing for after racing the Ecosse-Rover C2 car at Knockhill he finished second in the Group C2 Championship race at Nurburgring. He returned there with John Clark in John Clark’s Cooper Bobtail and the pair were overall winners.
For 2003 he ran a Radical SR3 in the European Championship but returned to Caterhams the following year in both the British and Scottish Roadsport championships. He was also a competitor in the first Scottish Mini Cooper Challenge Cup series that year.
Since then Alasdair has only raced occasionally, notably at Silverstone, with the Ecosse C2 car due to settling into the property business but this year he is likely to drive in a few selected historic and modern races with the Ecosse C2 car, John Clark’s Cooper Bobtail and Lola Mk1 and a Juno SSE CN.
Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith, who is also well known in the property business in Edinburgh is now 28 and he too started in karting in the Scottish TKM Championship and did not come into motor racing until 2002 with the Scottish Caterham Roadsport Championship.
He went on to win the Scottish Caterham Championship in 2003 as well as competing in several rounds of the British Championship. He also won his class in the Jim Clark Rally that year in a Mini Cooper as part of the newly established Scottish Mini Cooper Challenge Cup, in his first ever rally and beating veteran Jimmy McRae who was driving the celebrity car. In 2004 he raced a Radical SR3 alongside Alasdair McCaig.
In recent years Andrew has been racing the Ecurie Ecosse Group C2 car “Henry” which he bought in 2005, and alongside his father in his Lola T70 MKIIIB Coupe in which he won his first race outright at Spa in 2006.
In 2008 Andrew will be continuing to compete in various historic events throughout the UK and Europe in his Ecosse C2 car and the Lola T70. Andrew and his father have also recently restored a 1963 Jaguar E Type Lightweight and the ex - Parnelli Jones / Mecom Racing 1965 Lola T70 MKII Spyder which they will be racing together in both sprint and endurance races.
