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A legendary weekend never to forget

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A legendary weekend never to forget

Rally Legends Selfie

Left to right: Hans Thorszelius, Stig Blovmquist, Sébastien Loeb, Miki Biasion, Sébastien Ogier, Ari Vatanen, Didier Auriol, Petter Solberg, Luis Moya, Derek Ringer, and taking the selfie, Nicky Grist. 


Rally Legends is a weekend I will never forget! What an unprecedented gathering of world champions, the likes of which we are never likely to see again. To attract so many stars of rallying to San Marino just goes to show what a draw Colin McRae still is. In fact, more than that – Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier told me that they both played the Colin McRae Rally Game before they started to drive, so it’s funny that two multiple world rally champions played the same game as so many fans did and got to know Colin that way!

I arrived in San Marino at 01.00 on Saturday, having flown from Stansted and driven from Bologna airport, and after a good night’s rest I headed down to rally headquarters. Sebastien Ogier, Petter Solberg and myself went off in a helicopter to watch a stage, and by pure chance we saw this Italian drift champion in action. Fair play, it was really spectacular and he had great car control!

From there we had a press conference, drinks reception and dinner. It was amazing to see so many world champions there. Miki Biasion, Juha Kankkunen, Marcus Gronholm, Timo Salonen, Didier Auriol, Stig Blomqvist, Ari Vatanen – the list goes on! Obviously there were a few that couldn’t make it. Tommi Makinen had some Toyota team things that kept him away, Markku Alen was driving somewhere else and Hannu Mikkola couldn’t make it. Carlos Sainz sent a lovely video from Texas, where he was with his son at the Formula One Grand Prix, and Valentino Rossi, who is a huge Colin McRae fan, sent a message. Malcolm Wilson sent a video too, where he said there were a lot of highs and lows working with Colin – and the lows weren’t too bad and the highs where very high! He recalled the 1999 Safari Rally, in which Colin and I got the car through all the sections without winning one of them, but won the event by 15 minutes. He said he considers that Colin’s best drive for the team.

Jimmy, Margaret and Alister, who was driving the course car with Derek Ringer, were all there too, as was Colin’s daughter Hollie. She’s the spitting image of her mother Alison, she’s nineteen now and in university – it’s amazing how quickly time moves on.

I got to bed at three – after a great night in the company of Luis Moya, Petter, Stig and the usual suspects! It wasn’t as wild as some of the nights – we’re all a little bit older, wiser, and it was going to be a big day the next day – but it was still great fun!

The highlight of Sunday was the Colin McRae Tribute Parade. I did it with Sebastien Loeb in a 2008 Citroen C4. We were only supposed to do two laps, but we ended up doing four because we couldn’t find the way out! Nobody minded, quite the opposite in fact, but eventually we got waved out and we were able to escape!

There’s no mistaking now fanatical the Italian fans are about Colin. His flamboyant driving style made a big impact on them, and even today they are so passionate about him.

It was a very special weekend and the time flew far too quickly. It wasn’t long before I was on the flight home and I got through the front door at about half past midnight. It’s certainly a great weekend, and one I shall never forget.