The BBC’s Nicky Grist Documentary Is A Treat For Rally Nerds

If you’re even vaguely familiar with rallying then the name Nicky Grist should mean something to you: his voice was the soft but authoritative Welsh-accented one that soundtracked some truly wild onboard videos as he read pace notes to Colin McRae in the latter part of the late Scotsman’s career.

Undoubtedly one of the most recognisable names among those who willingly strap themselves into the passenger seats of rally cars hurtling through forests at preposterous speeds, the co-driver is now the subject of a short BBC documentary that’s a real treat if you’re the sort of person who gets misty-eyed about blue and gold Imprezas and white, green and red Celicas.

Part of the broadcaster’s Legends of Welsh Sport series, the episode’s focus isn’t primarily on Grist’s partnership with McRae, although that’s probably what he’s best remembered in the public consciousness for.

Rather, the main part of the documentary focuses on the moment that gave Grist his big break in the WRC. He was parachuted in as a last-minute co-driver for Toyota driver and then triple world champion Juha Kankunnen after his regular partner, Juha Piironen, was taken ill shortly before Rally Argentina. The pairing would end up winning not just the rally, but the whole championship – a fourth for Kankunnen, and the first and only for Grist.

That’s not to say it totally brushes over his McRae years, with a brief look at that bit of onboard footage from the duo’s Ford Focus at Wales Rally GB in 2001. If you haven’t seen what we’re talking about, you really should, so we’ve embedded it for your viewing pleasure above.

As well as Grist and Kankunnen themselves, the episode also features commentary from Chris Harris, motorsport journalist Mike Greasley, rally photographer Reinhard Klein and Grist’s wife, Shaz. The best part of all, though, is the huge amount of delightfully grainy archive footage the BBC’s dug out for the documentary, transporting us back to the Group A days when the WRC was still a huge deal and the likes of Ford, Toyota, Subaru and Lancia all slugged it out on the stages.

The episode’s available for free on the Beeb’s iPlayer streaming service for at least another 11 months (in the UK, at least – we can’t speak for other countries). It’s certainly a rather niche subject, but if you love rallying, you owe it to yourself to sit down with your beverage and snack of choice for half an hour and give it a watch.