RALLYING ROUND As Ott Tänak wins the 75th, Jack Phillips looks back at the history of Rally GB

Remembering the highlights, from Lanchester to WRC, as the (RAC) Rally of Great Britain crowns its 75th winner

Just like football only started in 1992 when the Premier League and Sky set upon world domination, the first RAC Rally was held in 1951. Except… Just like football, the Rally of Great Britain goes back further. To 1932, as our answer to the Monte – albeit with less glamour. No offence, Torquay. Entrants, nearly 350 of them, chose a starting point from Bath, Buxton, Edinburgh, Harrogate, Leamington, Liverpool, London, Newcastle or Norwich and trudged 1000 or so miles – at an average speed determined depending on steed – to the south coast for three tests.

Instigator The Autocar put its name to the trophy, given to Col AH Loughbrough and his Lanchester from a field including Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin, Donald Healey and Lord Howe. Though nobody really ‘won’, except their class.

The ‘1st RAC’ changed that in ’51, before Special Stages tentatively took hold in ’60 when Erik Carlsson became the first overseas winner. He would win the next two, too. Nordic men reigned the decade – foot and mouth in ’67 stopped the rot and the rally, giving respite from the domination – until Roger Clark won in ’72.

In 1990 it acknowledged its roots, and 1989’s ‘38th’ was followed a year later by the ‘46th’, counting back on track to this year’s 75th running.

The long wait for a home win was ended by Colin Mcrae in ’94, and he and Richard Burns ruled the rest of the ’90s, winning the hearts, minds and games consoles of the nation, the Group Bs long departed from the UK’S woods.

Letters R, A and C lasted longer, its acronym still synonymous despite Lombard and Network Q’s efforts. Alas, it would never see Torquay again.

A Riley navigates from a control point in Torquay on the first event in ’32. Previous page: entrants gather on the seafront in a drab March, 1000 miles from their start points

Right: the works Mini Cooper ‘S’ of Finn Rauno Aaltonen gets airborne on the way to victory in 1965 – a fine year for BMC’S rally programme that included a Monte win and the European title. Below: unmistakably Colin Mcrae, three-time winner of his home rally – seen here flying to his first victory in 1994 in a Subaru Impreza

A decade on from Carlsson’s hat-trick, Finn Timo Mäkinen won three on the trot in Ford Escort RS1600S and a RS1800 from ’73 (pictured) to ’75

Clockwise from above: racer Derek Bell’s first appearance on the RAC, in an Opel Kadett in ’87 – he retired, and claimed 29th the following year in an Astra; Saab’s Per Eklund at Oulton Park’s Lodge in ’71; Vic Elford leads Ford Cortina GT train during the seven-lap Oulton Park test in 1964; Gunnar Poppe’s Talbot Ten in 1937

Stig Blomqvist was made to wait to complete his RAC brace: 12 years separated his Saab V4 victory in 1971 and his quattro victory in ’83, Audi’s third and final win

Clockwise from above: runner-up Mäkinen is pushed from a snowdrift in a Healey and passed by his usual Mini teammate and rally winner Aaltonen in ’65; 911 specialist Björn Waldegård in ’70; Jim Clark impressed in ’66, taking three stage wins; double winner Harry Kallström, opposite-locking to 14th in a Datsun 240Z in ’73