Today marks 17 years since perhaps the most impressive rally driver, Colin Steele McRae, died in a helicopter crash near Larnak, Scotland. Among those on board who died tragically were his 5-year-old son Johnny and two family friends.
Track and rally drivers maintain a perpetual feud, always in contexts of noble rivalry and – not so noble – trolling. Some argue that the rallyists want chewed food from the co-drivers so they don’t become a poster in a tree, while others argue that without the signs that mark the braking points, the “pistards” don’t make half a turn.
The diplomatic and politically correct approach wants “each in his own way” to prevail. Which is true, as the kerb-to-kerb driving style is far from over. Some forms, however, bordering on the supernatural or the divine, recognize no difference. Everything is road: gravel, jumps, snow, barrier clearing, four-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, even two-wheelers. No variation is recognized after timer activation.
Martin Brundle, shortly after Colin McRae’s test with his Jordan-Peugeot, said that he had never seen a man adapt a machine so quickly to his measurements. After just 25 laps of the Silverstone circuit, the Scot was just 1.5″ away from a driver who ate Formula 1 with a spoon, using his car, being set up (even the seat) to Brundle’s liking.
O Colin
Raised in a racing environment, since his father was the well-known WRC competitor, 5-time British champion Jimmy McRae, Colin began to show his talent at a fairly young age, not on 4 wheels, but on two-wheelers, after competing victoriously in local trial championships.
However, the “germ” for cars had already entered him, and with a MINI Cooper he participated in various autotests, while his first rally came in 1985 at the Kames Stages in his particular hometown, finishing 14th overall and 1st in his class .
A Talbot Sunbeam came next and Colin spent countless hours preparing it in his home garage, it was a school for him but, in 1987, in a Vauxhall Nova (Corsa) he made his WRC debut at Rally Sweden, attracting attention with his particular driving style, compared to that of Ari Vatanen.
Success would be redeemed, locally of course, by winning the Scottish Rally Championship driving the humble Nova, a title his father had failed to win.
Next car in his career was a Sierra XR 4X4 and in 1989, he came fifth overall in the New Zealand Rally. That was enough for Ford, his WRC employer after a decade, to give him a factory Sapphire Cosworth.
Subaru: The Birth of a Legend
David Richards, former co-driver of 1981 champion Ari Vatanen, impressed by Colin’s abilities, took the decision to bring him to his team, Prodrive, which prepared Subaru cars in 1991, a choice that at first seemed like a risk, because, apart from the Scotsman’s sporadic appearances in the WRC, the latter mainly had experience from the championships at Old Albion. Colin won’t let him down though. Initially competing with the Legacy in the British championship to gain more kilometers on the special courses to later join full participation in the WRC, he won with his co-driver Derek Ringer in 1991 and in 1992 the championship on the Island. In the second year he also made the sweep, i.e. 6/6 in the matches, with the British media going crazy.
A first WRC victory did not come for Colin, racing in Sweden, after a crash betrayed his up to that point remarkable effort, finishing second, ahead of Group B legends Stig Blomqvist and Markku Alen.
The hard work of the stubborn Colin paid off with a full participation in the 1993 World, again with the Legacy and the rally station will again be that of New Zealand. The longed-for first victory came and the world began to learn about his absolute dedication to the goal and his natural talent.
With a new car now, the Impreza, he raced in 1994 taking two wins, again in New Zealand and the RAC, but 1995 was his year. Arriving at Rally Catalunya, with one lap to go, with McRae and Sainz battling for the title, at the end of day two, Richards ordered the positions to remain as they were, with McRae second and the Spaniard first, on the grounds that they would get maximum points for the constructors’ championship and the two would go to the RAC on equal points.
The clearly enraged Colin obviously wasn’t going to leave it like that, he disagreed with his team’s order and started the special with only in mind how it would go “tapa”!
The image of the Subaru people pulling into the special in order for Colin to slow down was an example of the “flat out” driving style we’ve come to love over the years. On paper, he wins the race, but is penalized with a one-minute penalty, so the Spaniard takes the win.
A determined McRae is going all out in the final race of the year, in front of his RAC compatriots. With an incredibly mature way of driving, of course fast, he became the first British and youngest until that year World Champion.
He raced for Subaru until 1998, but a number of reliability issues denied him another title, despite taking more wins than his rivals in 1996 and 1997, finishing second in the final standings both years.
Of course, he was also a bit costly for the teams, since he could easily destroy the car at any time.
WRC 1000 Lakes, Colin Design
On the other hand, I think Subaru and Colin were synonymous…
Australia, jumps and “flying” Colin…
At one point in his career, he had stated something that made a lot of sense to him:
Straights are for fast cars, corners for fast drivers!
Ford: New challenges
Unable to double his titles at Subaru, it was also the time when Tommi Makinen’s talent shone, the Finn winning four titles in a row, McRae was looking for a new challenge in his career and Ford covered his ambitions. With the Blue Oval team, he signed a £3m-a-year contract and became the highest-paid rally driver.
In 1999 he faced many problems, and mechanical failures and driving without limits resulted in finishing in only 3 of the 14 races of the championship that year, but 2 of the 3 races were victorious.
Driving without limits did we say? Once again, he proved that in addition to being fast, he could at any moment end up in a ravine, paying the price. But this was Colin…
After 2 not so successful years, 2001 thought it would finally be his year. 3 wins in a row and he goes into the final race, classics at the RAC, ahead of Richard Burns, who that year was driving for Subaru, by just one point.
However, he was 10mph faster and 40cm further into the corner, according to co-driver Nicki Grist and those two were enough to deny him his second career title while Burns claimed his only title. . It was not by chance that the nickname they stuck to Colin: Colin McCrash!
Colin had a particular approach to things, which meant going from A to B as fast as possible regardless of ‘lines’, he seemed to be fighting more with the soul than the mind, as for example they were fighting with ‘surgical precision’ ” Walter Rohrl and 9-time World Champion Sebastian Loeb.
This uncompromising style endeared him and his “finish faster than everyone else, at any cost” mentality found ground in the 2002 Cyprus Rally, when he was first on the first 2 days, but on the third day, known “flat out Colin” did his miracle again.
On one of the special stages of the day, he overturned his Focus, hitting a rock, in the same spot that Marko Martin hit. Abandoning for Scottish?? Of course not!! He has lost his hydraulic power steering, was pushing to stay in the fight for the podium and finishes the stage only 15” behind Gronholm.
Stubborn Colin attacked again in the next special stage and in a corner where he had to enter in 5th gear, faithful to the “maximum attack” that represented him, he entered in 6th and many kilometers. The result was quite a few flips, with the Focus pulling all the stops that day. The image of McRae trying to pry the damaged car, either by kicking or hammering it, was one of the WRC’s most memorable moments.
There was no bumper, the windshield was broken, the rear was dented, but still he managed and brought it to sixth place overall!
That year, he took his 25th victory in Kenya and became the most successful rally driver in history up to that point.
Citroën, Skoda, Le Mans and Dakar
A new team for 2003 was Citroen, scoring points in just three races and in 2005 he returned to the WRC for Skoda in the Fabia and at home, in front of his compatriots, brought the Czechs’ best result of the year, seventh . With his return to Skoda for Rally Australia, hopes of a good result returned.
After an amazing ride, he was third on day one and very close to second. And while everyone was expecting the first podium for Skoda, a typical clutch change ended up being a nightmare, losing precious time which unfortunately led to abandonment.
In 2004, he returned to Prodrive, this time not at rally level, but in endurance racing, namely Le Mans. In a Ferrari 550 Maranello, he finished third in the GTS class and ninth overall and a year later, he competed with Nissan in the famous Paris-Dakar race, driving a pickup. He was fastest in the first of three stages in Morocco, but retired in the sixth after an accident.
Epilogue
Is Colin really the most spectacular rally driver of all time? I don’t know if I can give you an answer to this question, but I believe that the world has prematurely lost a charismatic, “crazy”, uncompromising leader. Nicki Grist had said that where there seems to be no room for him to pass, Colin will create one.
In the end, in the memories of all friends of motor sports, the image of the Scotsman is this:
I got into racing because I loved driving the cars, but I also loved driving them as fast as possible.
In the end, if people remember me for anything, I’d like it to be this…
We miss you Colin, besides, you are our “13th God”, since you remain the driver with the most victories in our National Race…
If in doubt, flat out….
Colin McRae 5/8/1968- 15/9/2007
Source: www.autoblog.gr
