Carlos Sainz’ Toyota Corolla by the lake at Mallards Pike in 1999
ORIGINALLY POSTED 19th July 2020
Two decades ago last November the World Rally Championship decended on a picnic area beside a lake in the Forest of Dean for the annual pre-Rally GB (or RAC Rally if you are of an older generation) media day. At the time the event was based in nearby Cheltenham and with Colin McRae , the 1995 World Rally Champion, firmly installed as a national folk hero and arch rival Richard Burns on the verge of similar greatness, the event was at a peak which it, sadly, rapidly decended from shortly afterwards.
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Tommi Maknen’s Mitsubishi Evo at Mallards Pike 1999
In 1998 and 1999 ( I don’t recall if it happened in 1997 too) the car park at Mallards Pike was turned into a service area filled with factory WRC team vehicles instead of tourists and dog walkers. A mile or so down the road a short special stage was running trough the forest near Blackpool Bridge.
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Alistair McRae( Subaru Imprezza) in 1998. Blackpool Bridge in the background
Public access to both was free and easy. For spectators it was a gift.
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Nicky Grist (McRae’s navigator) with arch-fan Rob Richards, who later navigated for me
A sizeable crowd looked on and mingled with the star names in a way that would not have been possible once the Rally itself was underway, and with the top runners tackling the same stage several times within a few hours they had more views of Colin or Richard, Juha or Tommi than they would normally have chasing the event for it’s entire three days.
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Colin McRae (Ford Focus) 1999
Over the two years a dazzing number or past and future world rally champions appeared : Colin McRae, Richard Burns, Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen, Didier Auriol, Tommi Makinen, Marcus Gronholm, Petter Solberg and veteran Ari Vatanen.
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Juha Kankkunen in 1999
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Colin McRae with team boss Malcolm Wilson in the background, 1999
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Carlos Sainz in 1999
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Petter Solberg (Ford Focus) in 1999, then a rising star.
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The great Ari Vatanen with local rally navigator Paul Willetts & son Nick.
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Martin Brundle in 1999
But they were not alone, other motor sport world champions also appeared, 1992 World Sportscar champion (an of course ex F1 driver) Martin Brundle took part in the 1999 event in a Toyota Corolla.
The previous year I took a photo (below) of another Toyota driver and only later did the identity of those around him suddenly strike me . From left to right are future World Superbike champions Colin Edwards (2000, 2002) and James Toseland (2004, 2007) Didier Auriol (WRC champion 1994) & Aaron Slight (2nd in the world Superbike championship 1996, 1998) .
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Didier Auriol and the superbike racers in 1998
That really was a lot of world titles in one place!
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Juha Kankkunen (Ford Escort WRC) entering Mallard Pike 1998
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Richard Burns (Mitsubishi Carisma) at Mallard Pike 1998
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Marcus Gronholm’s Toyota in the service area 1998
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Didier Auriol (Toyota Corolla) Heads off to the special stage 1998
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Colin McRae in the service area 1998
Sadly of course both the British world rally champions are no longer with us. Colin McRae and his son (along with family freinds) died in a helicopter accident in 2007 .
Richard Burns who won both the 1998 and 1999 Rally GB events, succumbed to a brain tumour aged just 34 in 2005.
This final shot here is one I took of him at the 1999 media day and it remains one of my favourite photos.
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Richard Burns , Subaru Imprezza 1999. (Prints available, click image for details)
In 2000 I didn’t attend, I had some Finnish journalists arriving at the shop . They were covering the rally and they could only be there on that specific day. I think the venue had changed to a different local wood and a less accessible service area. Either way the brief era was over. The Network Q Rally GB had moved from Cheltenham to Cardiff that year and in the popular consciousness a decline to near invisibility had begun.
It had been good while it lasted. But was it over twenty years ago already? Blimey!
