Rallying’s Hall of Fame event
The names need no introduction. The faces, entirely familiar, relaxed with the passing of the years and a shift to a less frantic time. Last week, nine drivers and countless characters gathered to mark the introduction of the World Rally Championship to the FIA’S Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame was established at the end of 2017, when all 33 Formula 1 world champions were inducted. Now it was the turn of the WRC and the generations converged for an evening to remember.
The Automobile Club de France sits in a corner of Paris’s largest square, the Place de la Concorde. Ordinarily, number six blends obligingly into the beautifully imposing buildings which sit alongside. Not today. Today number six takes the eye of every taxi driving or tourist that passes.
It’s not every day you see an Alpine A110, Citroen Xsara WRC, Peugeot 205 T16 E2, Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Toyota Corolla WRC and Lancia Stratos lined up in the centre of the French capital.
Walter Rohrl, Ari Vatanen, Miki Biasion, Carlos Sainz, Didier Auriol, Tommi Makinen, Marcus Gronholm, Petter Solberg and Sebastien Loeb were all in attendance and all in the mood to talk.
Gronholm arrived early with co-driver Timo Rautiainen and, curiously, a bag with his overalls in. “I’m ready to race,” grinned ‘Bosse’. The opportunity of further investigation into his race-readiness passed all too quickly as another cab dropped another megastar, another hero of our sport.
A special reception was reserved for the family of Britain’s first ever World Rally champion Colin Mcrae. Colin’s parents Jimmy and Margaret, wife Alison, partner Hugh, and daughter Hollie were all there, along with Derek Ringer and his wife Ann.
Richard Burns’ sister Jo collected the award on behalf of the 2001 World Rally champion, with Robert Reid joining her on stage.
There was no shortage of emotion and appreciation for a journey which took the Automobile Club de France’s library down a 40-year-old road. Stories, some told, some forgotten and retold were joined by emerging tales relayed in confidence inspired by the passing of time and fading of memories.
FIA president Jean Todt welcomed all to the room and talked warmly and with a deep sense of pride of his own time in the series, both as a co-driver who came close to taking a world title and as a team manager who crushed all comers with the era-defining 205 T16.
Todt’s fellow co-drivers were all remembered, but this was an evening where the drivers took centre stage.
Seeing Biasion, Auriol and Ninni Russo in a huddle took you straight back to a Martini-liveried time where the discussion centred on a preferred damper for the Tuscan gravel which lay in wait.
The youngest of the Mcraes offered the most searing insight into the speed with which the years have passed. Looking up to ‘wee Hollie’ – as Margaret will, doubtless, always refer to her – there was a young lady now in her third year at university. Hollie would have made her father enormously proud, as she does the rest of Lanark’s finest folk.
It was, however, her gramps who stole the show with a fabulous line in response to the question of what made Colin so great. Jimmy: “He had a fantastic father.” Colin’s former team-mate Carlos Sainz talked touchingly of his time alongside Mcrae, as did Petter Solberg. The Norwegian arrived looking freshfaced and relaxed, talking of a recent holiday. Petter’s wife Pernilla filled in the details: “Holiday… we had an afternoon walking around Paris!”
Petter wasn’t in a position to argue. He’d gone back to 2003, back to the end of Margam Park and he’d gone back there with the man who’d carried him on his shoulders that day… Makinen.
“This is amazing,” said Petter pausing long enough to look around the library.“all of these guys, just look at them. Walter [Rohrl], [Miki] Biasion… these guys are legends. Real legends.”
And now, thanks to the FIA’S Hall of Fame, their names are on the wall. ■