Rally Rivals: The Scot V.s. The Spainard #BlogPost

This rivalry between Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz began at the 1995 Catalunya Rally when the two teammates were ferociously fighting for the lead. The competition was so fierce that Prodrive/Subaru team director David Richards ordered the two to hold positions for the final stage of the rally because he feared that one of the drivers would be in an unnecessary crash. This order mean’t that Sainz would win and McRae would come second. McRae was a very competitive driver and simply couldn’t accept it and was absolutely furious.

At the final stage of the Catalunya Rally, McRae drove like a bat out of hell! In fact he was so fast that Subaru put a team of officials on the final kilometers of the stage in an attempt to slow him down but their efforts failed. In service, McRae deliberately got a time penalty so that Sainz would win the rally. This 1-2-3 finish sat Subaru right at the top of the championship rankings.

The final rally of the season was the RAC Rally in Britain, where McRae drove flat out for the entirety of the rally. In this rally, McRae punctured a tire, and damaged his front suspension. Luckily, he replaced the tire and bent the suspension back into place with a log and kept going. There was no stopping McRae and it was inevitable that he would go on to win the rally, even when he was making up time.

During the Welsh stages of the rally, McRae was more than a second per mile faster than Sainz, who was driving as fast as he could in the muddy and foggy conditions of the rally. McRae won the event by 36 seconds as well as the championship which would be the first time a British rally team won a World Rally title. This rally would also be the second time this season that Subaru had a 1-2-3 finish which is nothing short of amazing!

Despite the efforts placed against him in Catalunya, McRae would go on to win to the 95’ World Rally Championship, and prove himself to be one of the best rally drivers of all time! Hope you enjoyed! As always, Have a good one!