Colin McRae at TEN

It will be ten years on Sept 15 tomorrow since we lost Colin McRae.

http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/september-2017/mcrae-moments/page/4850--12-12-.html

He his still held in reverence by many, most of whom never even saw him on an event, which I find very odd. Clearly the rally games have added to his reputation.

But it was much more fun seeing him in action for real.

Rally Day at Castle Coombe is on Saturday 23rd September. I will have the Colin McRae display there on the Craven Motor Club stand, come and say hello.

Check out the www.rallyday.com website for more info on who is there and what cars are there. Latvala, Evans, Tanak & Blomquist and some of the MCrae Collection cars...

Chris

Busy day as ever at Rally Day.

Altough we were not on the main drag we did get some interesting visitors to view the Colin McRae Collection.

Best story was about McRae's multiple crashes on the 1992 1000 Lakes.

Dave W was at the next fuel halt after the first crash. Three of them were jumoping up and down on the roof to try and flatten it.
The service crew found them and welded the roll cage to the body.

They were then dispatched to a local Subaru agent where there was a new white Legacy saloon. They removed all four dorrs and fitted these to the McRae car. They were even stickered up correctly.

Unfortunaly, Colin hadnt finished crashing as he went off again and again, damaging the doors again.

This is why I do the shows, you never know what you are going to learn

Chris

I'm envious of your collection and the stories and contacts your commitment bring for you!
IMO anyone who didn't see McRae pre 2000 missed getting to see why he was such a massive thing, and the older of us that got to see him pre 90 and watched him develop were very fortunate. I remember being excited in 89 when Llewellyn set a couple of fastest times on the RAC, to be watching one of 'our' drivers fighting for the win a couple of years later seemed impossible but he made it happen in the most spectacular and at times frustrating way

Dave

Thanks for your comments.

My first RAC Rally was in 1975 and seeing/hearing a Stratos for the first time I was kooked

Roger Clark was our hero back then winning the RAC in 76 and the likelihood of another British winner was a distant dream. Tim Brise leading the RAC on Day 1 was a surprise Russell Brookes, Jimmy McRae and Tony Pond were trying their best. Pond third on the 86 RAC was as good as it was going to get

Then on the 1987 Manx young McRae turned up and threw his Nova at everything the island could offer. Later on the RAC in the Sierra he dragged around the wreck to finish.

But it was the 1991 & 92 BRC that he came to prominence. Who will ever forget the sound of that Legacy? From then it was onwards and upwards. A win in New Zealand was the first British win on a World Rally since Roger Clark in 1976!!

Then in 1995 there was a chance Colin could be World Champion. As ever our team were timekeeping on the RAC. Long story but I actually started him on the Hafren stage where he took the lead from Carlos Sainz. Could he actually go on to win? Back in those days there was no social media you had to phone the rally results line or listen to the sports reports on the radio to know what was going on. We realised history was about to made we never thought we would ever see a British WRC. We had to go to the finish in Chester (the complete wrong direction for our homes). It was fantastic that donut the noise brilliant. We were there!!!

Any car driven by Colin was always flat out on the edge and always very committed and a car driven like that there are times when it went a bit too far with the obvious consequences. Even if the car looked like a shed afterwards he was still driving the wheels of it. He just never gave up.
Well we had seen it once we never thought we would see another WRC again, then a few years later Richard Burns was also WRC. It’s amazing looking back just how parallel Colin and Richards career paths were.

With two top British drivers in the WRC the crowds were back to the days of Group B. Sadly since those heady days it’s been on the decline ever since.

Chris

CDM wrote:Dave

Thanks for your comments.

My first RAC Rally was in 1975 and seeing/hearing a Stratos for the first time I was kooked

Roger Clark was our hero back then winning the RAC in 76 and the likelihood of another British winner was a distant dream. Tim Brise leading the RAC on Day 1 was a surprise Russell Brookes, Jimmy McRae and Tony Pond were trying their best. Pond third on the 86 RAC was as good as it was going to get

Then on the 1987 Manx young McRae turned up and threw his Nova at everything the island could offer. Later on the RAC in the Sierra he dragged around the wreck to finish.

But it was the 1991 & 92 BRC that he came to prominence. Who will ever forget the sound of that Legacy? From then it was onwards and upwards. A win in New Zealand was the first British win on a World Rally since Roger Clark in 1976!!

Then in 1995 there was a chance Colin could be World Champion. As ever our team were timekeeping on the RAC. Long story but I actually started him on the Hafren stage where he took the lead from Carlos Sainz. Could he actually go on to win? Back in those days there was no social media you had to phone the rally results line or listen to the sports reports on the radio to know what was going on. We realised history was about to made we never thought we would ever see a British WRC. We had to go to the finish in Chester (the complete wrong direction for our homes). It was fantastic that donut the noise brilliant. We were there!!!

Any car driven by Colin was always flat out on the edge and always very committed and a car driven like that there are times when it went a bit too far with the obvious consequences. Even if the car looked like a shed afterwards he was still driving the wheels of it. He just never gave up.
Well we had seen it once we never thought we would see another WRC again, then a few years later Richard Burns was also WRC. It’s amazing looking back just how parallel Colin and Richards career paths were.

With two top British drivers in the WRC the crowds were back to the days of Group B. Sadly since those heady days it’s been on the decline ever since.

Chris

I was there myself too, in both '94 and '95 the atmosphere was incredible in Chester, and the on whole events really, they really were special times in our sport I actually only missed the '96 event through out the whole of the 90s but have only been there twice since, what ever it is now I don't really know but by '07 it was so far from what it was then that going seemed to sully my memories