About Me
Colin Steele McRae, MBE (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007) was a Scottish World Rally Championship (WRC) driver from Lanarkshire, the son of five-time British Rally Champion, Jimmy McRae and older brother of professional driver Alister McRae. He won the world driver's title in 1995, was championship runner-up in 1996, 1997 and 2001, and third in 1998.
He helped lead Subaru to the Manufacturers' title in 1995, 1996 and 1997, and Citroën in 2003. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1996.
Career
McRae began his rally career in 1986, driving a Talbot Sunbeam. A regular competitor on Scottish Rally Championship events, he was soon making a name for himself with his speed and exciting style of driving. His driving style drew many comparisons to Ari Vatanen, the famous Finnish rally driver who McRae had always idolised. He soon progressed to a Vauxhall Nova, and then onto a Ford Sierra XR 4x4. His first WRC exposure was in the 1987 Swedish Rally behind the wheel of his Nova, and again in 1989, driving the Sierra and finishing 15th overall. Later in '89, he finished 5th overall at Rally New Zealand in a rear wheel drive Sierra Cosworth. 1991 saw McRae join Prodrive Subaru for the British Rally Championship. He was twice the British champion in 1991 and 1992, soon graduating to 'works' status for the World Rally Championship factory team.
McRae won his first WRC rally in 1993, in the Prodrive-built Subaru Legacy in the Rally New Zealand. It was also the first rally win for the newly formed Subaru World Rally Team. Such were the rising fortunes of his young Subaru factory team as they competed against the then-mighty works Toyotas, aided by the latter team's eventual exclusion from the championship after the 1995 Rally Catalunya, it took only until 1995 for McRae to win the drivers title, which he secured with victory in a straight contest with his double champion team-mate, 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 Tommi Makinen. He did, however help 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.
After several years of varying success, McRae switched to the M-Sport Ford team for 1999, driving the new Ford Focus rally car. This move was immediately rewarded with two consecutive wins at the Safari Rally and Rally Portugal. A number of shunts and unreliability issues for the new car for much of the rest of that season, however, resulted in only sixth place in the championship standings overall. He finished 4th in the 2000 overall standings. McRae's intermittent success with Ford continued into 2001, where after failing to score in any of the first four rounds, he then went on to score three consecutive victories in Argentina, Cyprus and Greece to tie with Makinen 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 drivers championship, two points behind Richard Burns.
With victory in the Safari Rally in 2002, McRae made the record books as the driver with most event wins in the World Rally Championship. His record has since been broken by Carlos Sainz, Sébastien Loeb and Marcus Grönholm.
In 2003, McRae signed for Citroën. The season ended with seventh in the drivers' championship, with no victories. This resulted in McRae being dropped by the Citroën factory team for the 2004 season. As potential alternative suitors Subaru instead eventually chose Mikko Hirvonen to partner Petter Solberg, McRae found himself without a drive. He instead pursued other interests, including competing in the Paris Dakar Rally and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
McRae then returned to the series for one off drives for Skoda on the 2005 Rally GB and Rally Australia, respectively finishing seventh and retiring due to a mechanical problem, the latter dashing hopes for what may otherwise have been only the team's second ever podium place after the 2001 Safari Rally.
On August 5, 2006, McRae competed for Subaru in the first live televised American rally in Los Angeles as part of the X-Games. McRae crashed on the penultimate corner damaging the front bumper and left front tyre, finishing second. McRae was, though, to have one more opportunity at world championship level: he was unexpectedly entered for his final rally by semi-works Kronos Citroën at Rally Turkey in September, where he replaced Sébastien Loeb while the Frenchman recovered from an injury he sustained in a cycling accident immediately prior to the event. A final-stage alternator problem consigned him and returning co-driver Nicky Grist, to a final placing outside the top ten.
