NICKY GRIST ON COLIN MCRAE
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Nicky Grist eloquently described his first season with Colin McRae. From Grist’s biography: “The young Scot was branded a serial crasher; so much so that he had the nickname Colin McCrash. He had multiple accidents to his credit ... if you can call it credit! The reason for that, though, I believe, was due to the man’s sheer pace. He maybe erred further than most on the side of risk rather than caution – but that brought results as well as write offs! “We gelled almost instantly. That’s proven by the statistics – five victories in our first season. That year, unfortunately, we also had a lot of mechanical retirements – as well as the odd accident or two. Even so, we finished 2nd in the championship. My prized memory of that season was victory on my favorite event, the Safari Rally.”
COMMENTS FOR READERS OF DRIVE PERFORMANCE
Grist told Drive Performance: “Colin and I had a potent partnership that had its desperate disappointments and tremendous highs. Colin was the most exciting rally driver ever seen, and he was the fan’s favorite as he was the most sideways and did the highest jumps. There were always massive crowds wanting to see him, and we saw Scottish flags being waved all over the world.”The first event the pair won as a team was the 1997 Safari Rally in Kenya. Grist said, “It was the one event you’d have thought he would not have done well in as you have to drive with your brain, not your feet.”
However, Grist continued, “He was a very flamboyant driver, and he made the event his own by driving with his head. We worked on the pace notes so it gave him the speed he needed without damaging the car.
“We were leading by the end of the first day, and Subaru were really excited as Toyota had put a lot of effort into the Safari as well.”
Grist reminisced about one of the funniest experiences in the event: “We left Nairobi at 5:00 a.m. in the morning on the first leg, and Colin had been told to drink a lot of water. Not long after we got onto a 100-mile stage we were going along an incredibly rough old rail track – the road to hell – when Colin said, ‘I need to pee.’ I told him to loosen his trousers and it’d go away. Further on, we were going up a mountain on a smoother section in sixth gear when Colin said, ‘Take the steering wheel.’ He tried to open the door to pee, but we were going too fast, and there were crowds of people and donkeys everywhere. So he just peed in the car while I held onto the steering wheel. Left-handers were difficult from the passenger seat, but it was okay while we were on tarmac.
“We were fastest on that stage by three and a half minutes, and it sealed the event for us. It was the kind of guy he was.
“Rallying with Colin gave me the best time of my life.” Grist felt the latest WRC cars were not suited to Colin’s style of driving. “We’ll never see the likes of Colin again as today’s technology keeps cars straight.”
KEN BLOCK’S COMMENTS ON COLIN MCRAE
Ken Block got to know Colin McRae pretty well after they both competed in the X Games in 2006. The two of them hit it off, and Block visited the McRae home in Scotland last summer, driving McRae’s rally buggies and flying in his helicopter before the X Games. “Colin and I shared a passion for doing crazy things for fun,” Block told Drive Performance. “We talked about playing and what sort of toys we were going to get!”
Block says he felt honored to have a friendship with Colin. “He was a person I looked up to. I idolized him – I hate to use that word – but he’s what drew me into rallying with his go-for-it attitude.”
Block said Colin was a shy person, but “once you got to know him, he was warm and funny. He had a dry sense of humor.”
After Block did his record-breaking 171-foot jump, he sent a picture to Colin. “He e-mailed me right back and said, ‘If that’s real, I’ll eat my driving shoes.’ I told him he’d have to.” Block sensed that Colin was envious of him doing that jump. “He’d wanted Travis to teach him how to do jumps on his dirt bikes!”
Naturally, Block was stunned when he heard about Colin’s tragic death. “I feel really privileged to have raced head to head with him in his last-ever race.”
AUTHOR JOHN RETTIE REMINISCES ABOUT COLIN MCRAE
I was a big rally fan as a teenager in England in the 1960s. One hero was Paddy Hopkirk, who astounded the French by winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 in a Mini Cooper S. My other hero was Roger Clark, who won many rallies in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I began photographing rallies myself in the early 1970s, and I remember seeing Jimmy McRae compete in several events through to the first half of the 1980s.
For personal reasons I stopped covering motorsports after I covered the Acropolis Rally in 1985. I did not attend another WRC event until the New Zealand Rally in 2003.
Having been a fan of Jimmy McRae, I was eager to see Colin in action, especially as it was the 10th anniversary of his first-ever win on the same event. I was not disappointed. He came screaming almost totally sideways through the corner on an early stage in the event. The crowds cheered – he was certainly a favorite in that country on the opposite side of the world from where he grew up. (No, he did not finish this time.)
The following year I actually met Colin when he arrived many hours late at the Rest Day on the 2004 Dakar Rally in Burkina Faso. Despite falling out of contention for a win, he was in fine form and in a great mood. There were 20 or more writers and crew hanging around that evening, drinking beer and relaxing. None of the journalists were taking notes or photographs. We were just like old friends sitting around a campfire. I saw him as a normal, friendly – if somewhat shy – guy with no prima donna attitude.
Next time I saw Colin in action was at the X Games in Los Angeles in 2006. Again I was impressed by how he was genuinely interested in helping his competitors – Travis Pastrana, Ken Block, Tanner Foust, and other drivers. It was great to see them learn techniques from this master. Like others who knew Colin far better, I can personally say that he was a genuine, friendly guy once you got to know him. It’s probably because he was a shy guy out of the car but flamboyant in the car.
To see more images of Colin McRae, click here.
COLIN MCRAE RETROSPECTIVE
by John Rettie
Photo: Lars Gange/rally.subaru.com
“We were go-karting the night before X Games, and Colin kept getting the short end of the stick with his kart selection. It was awesome for me to witness two things that happened that night: the first being that even heroes can be human and everyone is beatable ... second was that he was taking every loss in this small indoor kart track as though it were a critical situation.
“Colin tried everything. Even resorted to giving the kid running the start a bribe to tell him which kart was the best. (Luckily, I had already paid that kid off to ensure that I got the fastest.)
“But no matter what happened on the race track (kart track or championship rally), Colin always had the ability to separate what happened on the track and laugh about it later with his friends/rivals.
“Even though that moment seems somewhat insignificant, I think it represented his personality better than any other
instance I spent with him.”
– Travis Pastrana
Similar heartfelt sentiments have been repeated many, many times since the sporting world lost Colin McRae last September in a helicopter crash that also stole the lives of his young son and two friends. Without a doubt, Colin McRae is the world’s most famous rally driver. His millions of fans also would say he is the greatest rally driver ever. Few would disagree.
Colin smiles for the fans at X Games 13.
THE YOUNGEST EVER
Just like other forms of motorsport, rallying has produced many heroes. Those remembered most vividly are ones who impressed their teenage fans – Erik Carlsson, Paddy Hopkirk, Roger Clark, Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola, Walter Röhrl, Carlos Sainz, Petter Solberg, and, of course, Colin McRae quickly come to mind.
Yet Colin McRae’s following spread beyond rallying. For Brits, where rallying is second only to Formula 1 in popularity, it is easy to see how he became a hero. In 1995 he became the first-ever Brit and, at 27, the youngest ever to win the World Rally Championship for Drivers.
Unlike Indy Car racing or even Formula 1, where someone in his early 20s can win races and championships, a rally driver normally requires years of experience before reaching championship levels. With Scandinavians tending to dominate the upper echelons of rallying, it was even more remarkable that a Scot should reach the top at such a young age.
FAMILY TIES
In-car with Colin McRae and Nicky Grist, Portugal Rally 1997.
To those close to Colin McRae, it was not a surprise. It was in his genes. His father, Jimmy McRae, was an accomplished rally driver who won the British Rally Championship five times between 1981 and 1988. Jimmy McRae’s passion for the sport rubbed off on two of his three sons – Colin and younger brother Alister.
Despite growing up in this Scottish rallying dynasty, Colin had to earn his dues. While working alongside his father in the family plumbing business, he started driving a Mini Cooper in local autotests, winning a local championship at the age of 16. But as soon as he got his driver’s license in 1985, he started rallying.
CHAMPIONSHIP TRAIL
Colin quickly made a name for himself with his speed and exciting driving style. His first WRC event was the Swedish Rally in 1987, where he finished 3rd in his class. The following year he won his first event – the Tweedies Rally in Scotland – with Alison Hamilton, his longtime sweetheart and future wife, as his co-driver.
Colin McRae and Derek Ringer wow the crowds on Rally Sanremo – d’Italia 1994.
Colin’s obvious natural talent drew the attention of David Richards, the head of Prodrive, which had started the Subaru World Rally Team in 1989. Richards signed Colin to the fledgling team in 1991. That year, veteran rally driver Ari Vatanen also had joined Subaru Rally Team Europe.
Colin said that Ari was his idol growing up, so it was a thrill for him to be on the same team. They both competed in less-powerful Group A Legacy RS cars in the 1991 RAC Rally of Great Britain. Ari finished 5th, and Colin retired.
More important, though, Prodrive had Colin competing in the British Rally Championship driving a Legacy. He achieved immediate success, winning the championship in 1991 and 1992.
Colin then was promoted to the WRC team, and it was Colin, not the more experienced Ari Vatanen, who gave Subaru its first-ever WRC win, in 1993 in New Zealand. Such rapid success in the tough WRC – thanks in no small part to Colin – encouraged two-time world champion Carlos Sainz to join the team as Colin’s teammate in 1994. But it was 27-year-old Colin who beat his more experienced, 33-year-old, two-time WRC-champion teammate to take the 1995 Drivers’ Championship.
Colin McRae and Nicky Grist celebrate with the team on the podium, Safari Rally of Kenya 1997.
Although he won three rallies in 1996, Colin only managed to take 2nd place in the Drivers’ Championship. But the team did accumulate enough points to give Subaru the Manufacturers’ Championship for the second time. It was much the same story in 1997 when he won five events, took 2nd again in the championship, and helped Subaru to its third manufacturers’ title in a row.
In 1997 Nicky Grist replaced Derek Ringer as Colin’s co-driver, and their first win came in Kenya’s Safari Rally – the toughest of all WRC events. It was one that Subaru dearly wanted to win, and nobody expected Colin to be the driver to capture it. After all, to win the Safari a driver had to pace himself and not drive flat out the whole time.
Read Nicky Grist’s comments on their 1997 Safari Rally win in the Online Exclusives.
SUPERSTAR STATUS
Colin McRae and Nicky Grist rolled over and still finished 2nd in X Games 12.
Colin McRae and Nicky Grist teamed together until 2002, and their last win was in that year’s Safari. That was Colin’s 25th and final WRC victory – a record number of wins for a driver at that time.
By then Colin had been a superstar for more than a decade. His name transcended the rally world thanks to it appearing on millions of copies of Colin McRae Rally, a top-selling video game. Many Americans who played the game thought of him as a fictitious driver. Richard Burns, the only other Brit to become World Rally Championship champ in a Subaru (2001), once referred to Colin as “a male Lara Croft.”
The myth that Colin was fictitious was debunked when he competed at X Games 12 in 2006, with Nicky Grist alongside him again. Colin had a spectacular roll on the final jump right at the end of the event but managed to keep going. He lost to Travis Pastrana by only half a second. (To put rumors to rest, Nicky confirms that “Colin did not roll on purpose.” Nicky says the roll did not cost them victory, but in fact the car was slower in the last corner because the tire had come off the rim.)
“RETIREMENT”
Colin McRae and Tina Thörner in the Dakar Rally 2004.
Although Colin’s career as a full-time WRC driver came to an end a few years ago, he was still active driving in a variety of race cars. He competed in the Dakar Rally in 2004 and 2005; several times in the Race of Champions, including winning in the inaugural year in 1998; and in the Le Mans 24-hour race for Prodrive in 2004, finishing 9th overall.
Colin was deeply affected by the passing of fellow Brit Richard Burns (due to illness) in 2005. Afterward, those close to Colin saw him spending more time with his young son and daughter and enjoying a more relaxed lifestyle at his estate home in Scotland. He also started developing his own specialized rally car, the McRae R4.
In more than two decades of driving, Colin had proven he was a true champion – a driver who could control a car masterfully at its limit and beyond. His place in the history of auto racing is assured as one of the greatest.