Colin McRae: Behind the Racer (Part 1)
Rallying is one of the most dangerous sports that one can take part in. It takes massive amount of skills and guts to pull off stunts that the rally drivers do. For example, who in their right mind would pull the hand brake of
a car going at the speed of light, with a rock wall on one side and a sheer drop on the other!; someone with either no concept of fear, or someone who has a lot of talent. Colin McRae had both these attributes in him. McRae was born in Lanark, Scotland on
August 5th, 1968. He was the son of British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae. McRae began his career as a competitive racer, riding bikes, even though he was interested in cars. He was only sixteen when he discovered autotesting (a series of tests that
measure the driver’s precision driving abilities). He sold his bike and bought a Mini Cooper and started competing. After a year he signed up for a single staged rally race. McRae finished at 14th place. In 1986, McRae entered the Scottish Rally
Championship and made his name known with his speed and style of driving. His driving style was influenced by Ari Vatanen (an ex World Rally Champion). In 1988 McRae won the Scottish Rally Championship in a Vauxhall Nova, which he sold and got a Ford Sierra
XR 4by4. McRae took part in his very first World Rally Championship in 1987. Two years later, in his Sierra, McRae finished in 15th place overall. During the same year, he finished 5th
in the New Zealand Rally. By 1990, McRae was driving a Sierra Cosworth 4by4 and came in 6th place in the RAC rally that year.
McRae was signed on by Prodrive, in 1991, to their Subaru team. McRae won the British Rally Champion, both in 1991 and 1992. He moved on to the Subaru factory team at World Rally Championship level. In 1993, McRae drove a Prodrive
constructed Subaru Legacy along with his idol, Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola and Markku Alen. Using that car, McRae attained his first WRC rally. Soon the legacy switched for the Subaru Impreza 555. Even though McRae had won events such as Acropolis Rally, Safari
Rally, and the Tour de Corse, he was unable to get a place higher than 2nd in the standings of 1996 and 1997. However, he did help Subaru complete their run of three manufacturers titles. He won three more rallies and was 3rd in the standings
in 1988. McRae left Subaru and joined the Ford factory team in 1999. He was earning 3 million pounds per year thus making him the highest paid rally driver in the history of the sport. He also won two consecutive wins soon after. Some car issues occurred and
he came in 6th place in the championship standings. McRae threatened to leave the team if the car was not fixed. In 2001, he won three victories right one after the other in Argentina, Cyprus, and Greece. He crashed his car in the next rally, and
finished 2nd in the driver’s championship (he was only two points behind the leader). In 2002, Colin McRae entered the record books with the most event wins in the World Rally Championship. During the same year, McRae’s contract with Ford ended
and after asking for a ridiculous 5 million pounds per year, Ford refused to re-sign him.
In 2003, McRae joined the Citroen team. They were famous for their success with Sebastian Loeb. McRae achieved the best result for the team during the Xsara WRC, by helping them complete a 1-2-3 finish. Due to rule changes in 2004,
Citroen was forced to have two point scorers instead of three. Thus the team had to choose between McRae and his team mate Loeb. Since Loeb was the one with more experience, it was McRae who had to find a new team to join.
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