The WRC is coming back to Britain with a bang this weekend, with the return of the Dayinsure Wales Rally GB for 2016.
Originally known as the RAC Rally when it first started all the way back in 1932, the rally has been a mainstay of the World Rally Championship for decades and one of the most iconic events on the WRC calendar.
With some of the most challenging stages in the world, Wales Rally GB is predominantly made up of full gravel tracks, with the ever-present threat of unpredictable weather, uneven surfaces and dense forests.
Given that it tends to be towards the end of the calendar, either as the last event or close to it, battles between drivers that have raged for an entire season are won or lost on the Welsh stages. Not only is it one of the most treacherous rallies in the world, it’s therefore also one of the most tense and the most exciting.
Here are five of the greatest moments from Rally GB history.
1986: Group B’s final farewell
The 1986 RAC rally was to be the final European rally for the legendary Group B cars, which had been essentially deemed to be too powerful and too fast for their drivers’ reactions to keep up with.
Following the deaths of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto, who both died in their Lancia Delta S4 during the Tour de Corse event earlier in the year, the FIA declared that Group B would be ruled out and several manufacturers like Ford and Audi immediately pulled their cars out of competition.
The RAC rally was the second last event on the calendar and was won by Finnish driver Timo Salonen in a Peugeot 205 T16. It would be the last time the iconic Group B cars rallied on European soil.
Jimmy McRae also drove in the rally and placed 8th in an MG Metro 6R4, the same car that would be passed on to his son Colin years later.
1995: McRae wins the world championship
Twenty-one years ago, a young Colin McRae would emerge from the rainswept Clocaenog East stage in North Wales to seal his first, and tragically his only, World Rally Championship.
Throughout much of the 1995 WRC season, McRae – still the first British WRC winner and the youngest driver ever to win the championship – had been battling his Subaru teammate Carlos Sainz for points.
Controversially, McRae defied team orders to allow Sainz a win on his home turf in Spain, with the team eventually forcing him to clock into the final time check a minute late and surrender the win, even though Colin was faster.
At the start of the Welsh rally, McRae and Sainz were on equal points and it was all to play for. Despite McRae’s car suffering several setbacks on the first two days, on the final day Colin put in record speeds on the gravel stages, flinging his iconic blue and yellow Impreza 555 across the finish line just 36 seconds ahead of Sainz.
1998: Carlos Sainz loses by just 300 metres
In one of the tensest finales in WRC history, 1998 saw Mitsubishi driver and four-time world champion Tommi Makinen duke it out with Carlos Sainz for the championship title on the Welsh stages.
Despite a heroic performance, Colin McRae suffered an engine failure and dropped out of the competition, leaving just Makinen and Sainz in the running for the final, overall, victory.
At the start of the event, a small error on Makinen’s behalf forced the Finn to retire due to damage. All Sainz had to do to win was simply cruise to the end of each stage for a comfortable win. By his own admission, Sainz said that all he had to do was drive at “sometimes not even 20 per cent” to win the championship. Except he didn’t.
A mere 300 metres from the final stage of the rally at Margam Park, the engine in Sainz’s Toyota gave out. Despite frantic attempts by Sainz and co-driver Luis Moya to get it running again, the car wouldn’t start and the title went to Makinen.
2001: Richard Burns wins, bursts into tears
Arguably, 2001 was the greatest year in modern rallying with no fewer than four top drivers in contention for the title, just fractions of seconds between them all and once again it all came down to the wire in Wales.
Richard Burns, Colin McRae, Tommi Makinen and Carlos Sainz were all in with a shot at the title; McRae had to win the rally outright to win the championship, but one corner cut too far ended Colin’s hopes for a second title and he crashed out.
In the end, it was Burns who had whittled away at the times and who had emerged out on top. Noted for his smooth and measured driving style which was unusual for such a young driver, he kept things as slow and as careful as he dared without risking bleeding time.
By the end of the last stage, Burns had extended his lead to nearly three minutes, and although many championships have been decided in Wales it was probably his victory that touched home the most. After a bitterly-fought season, Burns burst into tears after seeing his father Alex at the finishing line.
2003: Marcus Gronholm gets pulled over by the police
Another classic Rally GB moment came in 2003, when double world champion Marcus Gronholm was pulled over by the Welsh police, who wouldn’t let him continue driving on public roads due to the fact his Peugeot had a damaged wheel.
The incident would go down in history as the police officer repeatedly forbids Gronholm from continuing, despite the Finn’s protestation that he does, in fact, know what he’s doing.
Police would spell trouble for other drivers that year too, as part of a country-wide crackdown on speeding. Between the stages, rally drivers are required to drive on public roads to reach specific points by certain times or else they face points penalties.
The cops were having none of it. A total of 17 drivers were fined by Welsh police in 2003, with Colin McRae and Richard Burns among them. According to reports from the time, a total of four of those drivers were issued with driving bans.
