Meeting the myths
Posted by Piers Ward at 3:10PM on Tuesday 18 September, 2007 1 Comment
In this business, you're lucky enough to meet some pretty rarefied people. Look at Charlie Turner and his two encounters with Colin McRae.
So when a man like him passes away, there's a genuine mourning going on. It's not just a crowd mentality - you've actually pressed the flesh with these legends.
But that doesn't mean that the public's grief is any less genuine. Take me, for example - I never actually met Colin McRae, but I still feel for his family and for the loss of this incredible talent. About the closest I ever came to him was when I was doing work experience on Autocar a good few years ago.
One of the senior writers had a go with McRae in his World Rally car of the time. It was just after McRae had signed for Ford and this guy was heading up to Malcolm Wilson's rallying base in Cumbria. The story was that McRae would co-drive for the Autocar guy, but obviously Colin did a few stage miles as well.
And that was the highlight for the Autocar chap. He said there was this incredible sense of speed, but minimal steering movement on McRae's part. The lasting image he had was the violent 'bang, bang' as McRae went through the sequential 'box, but everything else was very fluid and calm. Serene almost.
As a young 'workie', this was meat and drink to me. I was already wide-eyed from working on a car mag, as well as a fan of McRae's from his British rallying days. But after this, his reputation with me just went stratospheric to the point where I never supported Tommi Makinen - not because he wasn't a great guy, but more because he was stopping McRae winning rallies.
What makes it doubly sad is because of the recent death of Richard Burns as well, one guy I was fortunate to meet. In an age where celebrity icons are ten a penny; meeting legends like this creates a bookmark in many peoples' lives, including my own.
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Colin McRae was the first rally driver whose name I knew. I bought all his games when they came out - apart from the most recent one, which is on my to-do-list (what do you think's gonna happen to those?).
He's also the reason I like the '90s Subaru Imprezas and what I'm gonna regret is never getting the chance to see him rallying for real or meet him.
R.I.P