I'm devastated.
As is the case with many of you guys I'm sure, growing up in Scotland in a car-daft family the McRae family were heroes of ours. Colin in particular for me as I was a little young to recall some of Jimmy's heroics.
We used to follow the local rallys such as the Snowman and the Granite City and when the latter was part of the British Championship both Colin and Jimmy were huge draws to the forests. I can remember on one occasion being close to tears when we never even got to see Colin due to a broken diff on his Sierra (I was only 10 or so!).
Another occasion not so long ago he guested as the course car driver in a Works Puma at the Speyside Stages. Equally gutted on this occasion as my uncle and brother walked deeper into the stage than a few of us, and got to meet the man where many people probably did - pushing his car back onto the road after an off!
But I suppose the latter really sums Colin McRae up. He developed a reputation as a reckless driver, but that was probably bourne out of the fact that he always pushed to the absolute maximum of both driver and car. That's why he became the youngest ever World Champion and was widely regarded by many of his peers as the fastest rally driver in the world.
Scotland, Britain, the motorsport world, has lost a true legend. But we cannot even imagine the loss that must be felt by the families. My thoughts are with them, it's a sad sad day.
