I’m on the road on a business trip and having just paid a king’s ransom to log into the Hotel’s wireless network, was stunned and shocked to read about the death of rally driver Colin McRae and his young son in a helicopter crash.

I was big fan of Colin’s dad, Jim McRae, in his day as one of the UK’s top rally drivers and spent many a foggy, rainy night stood on some remote forest special stage watching him and my other rally heroes flash by.

I saw Colin in some of his first national events, but never saw him at the height of his success, other than on TV. He went on to become Britain’s first Rally Champion in 1995 and one of the sport’s greatest ambassadors.

He embraced new technology and new markets. He gave his name to one of the best racing video games that introduced millions of kids, who had never looked at the sport before, to rallying and motor sports in general. He embraced and encouraged Rallying as the latest edition to the X-Games.

Above all he was passionate about the sport of racing in all its forms having also raced at Le Mans in sports cars and tested Formula One Grand Prix cars.

Several of the tributes I’ve read describe McCRae as “fearless”, yes he was, but he was also one of the rare few natural talents who could take a car and dance with it in that supreme ballet that signifies the perfect combination of man and machine.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Drivers, Rally. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.