Colin was the son of Jimmy McRae who was a five-time winner of the British Rally Championship. McRae was the eldest of three brothers; his middle brother, Alister, who he himself was also a rally driver.
McRae began his competitive career in motorsport riding trial bikes at an early age, despite being more interested in four-wheeled machines rather than two-wheel bikes. He became the Scottish schoolboy motocross champion at the age of thirteen.
The Beginning
In 1986, driving a Talbot Sunbeam, McRae entered the Scottish Rally Championship with Ian Grindrod, his father’s co-driver, as his co-driver, and soon made a name for himself with his speed and exciting style of driving. His driving style drew many comparisons to Finnish ex-World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, whom McRae had always idolised.
His first WRC event was the 1987 Swedish Rally in a Vauxhall Nova where he finished 36th overall, and again two years later, driving the Sierra and finishing 15th overall. In 1988 he took the Scottish Rally Championship series crown in his Vauxhall Nova. His next car was a Ford Sierra XR 4×4.
In 1989, he finished 5th overall at Rally New Zealand in a rear wheel drive Sierra Cosworth. In 1990 McRae achieved sixth place in that year’s RAC Rally, despite several accidents. In 1991, McRae turned professional as he was signed by Prodrive boss David Richards to his Subaru team in the British Rally Championship for an annual wage of approximately £10,000.
McRae was the British Rally Champion in both 1991 and 1992, soon graduating to the Subaru factory team at World Rally Championship level.
World Champion
Such were the rising fortunes of his young Subaru factory team as they competed against the frontrunning Toyota-powered Team TTE, who were excluded from the championship after the 1995 Rally Catalunya due to the use of an illegal air restrictor.
It took only until 1995 for McRae to win the driver’s title, which he secured with a victory in a straight contest with his double champion teammate, Carlos Sainz, on the season-ending Rally of Great Britain.
Although still a winner with the outfit in individual rallies in succeeding years, including, increasingly, more specialised events such as the Acropolis Rally, Safari Rally and the Tour de Corse, McRae could not better second place in the standings in either 1996 or 1997, on both occasions behind Finland and Mitsubishi Ralliart’s Tommi Mäkinen. He helped Subaru complete their run of three consecutive manufacturers’ titles during this time.
In what would turn out to be his final season with the team, in 1998 he won three more rallies and placed third in the standings, as well as winning the Race of Champions in Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands.
M-Sport
After several years of varying success, McRae switched to the M-Sport-run Ford factory team for 1999, driving the new Ford Focus rally car. The deal saw McRae earning six million pounds over two years, which at the time made him the highest-earning rally driver in history. He immediately had two consecutive wins at the Safari Rally and Rally Portugal.
His best year with Ford came in 2001. After failing to score in any of the first four rounds, including having momentarily led defending winner Tommi Mäkinen on the stages of the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally before being forced into retirement, he then went on to score three consecutive victories in Argentina, Cyprus and Greece to tie with Mäkinen at the top of the points table.
However, having again led the championship outright entering the final round in Great Britain, McRae once more missed out on a possible second title, crashing out and finishing second in the driver’s championship, two points behind Subaru’s Richard Burns.
McRae’s contract with Ford came to an end following the 2002 season, and after reportedly asking for wages of five million pounds a year, Ford decided against renewing the contract.
Stints in Citroën & Skoda
For 2003, McRae signed for Citroën, a team of winning pedigree due to its successes of the previous year with young Frenchman Sébastien Loeb but otherwise undertaking its first complete campaign at World Rally Championship level.
McRae’s second-place finish on his début in Monte Carlo alongside Loeb and Carlos Sainz whom, aboard the Xsara WRC, helped complete a 1–2–3 finish, the finest result he would achieve for the team, as he ended the season in seventh in the drivers’ championship, with no victories.
Rule changes are brought in for the 2004 season changing the previous practice of having three nominated points-scorers within a team to two. With Loeb partway through a multiple-year contract, this meant the Citroën factory team, under Guy Fréquelin’s leadership, was forced to choose between dropping McRae or Sainz.
With Sainz being the more successful of the two during the 2003 season. The would be McRae’s final full season in the WRC.
McRae then returned to the series for one-off drives for Škoda on the 2005 Rally GB and Rally Australia, respectively finishing seventh and retiring due to a clutch problem on the final leg of the rally, the latter ending prospects of Škoda’s best finish.
His Death
McRae died on 15 September 2007 when his helicopter along with his son Johnny, and two family friends Graeme Duncan and Johnny’s six-year-old friend Ben Porcelli. The funeral for Colin and Johnny took place on 26 September. An address was given by Robbie Head, a former rally driver and commentator who was a close friend of McRae’s.
Formula 1 racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart, Rangers and Scotland football captain Barry Ferguson and IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti were among the hundred of mourners who attended the funeral.
If In Doubt, Flat Out!
Colin McRae had this amazing talent to drive fast in any type of automotive vehicle. He competed in the BTCC, LeMans & XGames competing the likes of Ken Block & Travis Pastrana. In 2006 he competed in the Donegal International Rally in a Metro 6R4.
His legacy created a new generation of fans in the video game market with his rally games thanks to game developer Codemasters.
To some he would be describe as the people’s champion but at home he will always be The Flying Scotsman.
