Rally stars are essentially driving gods, so it’s rather reassuring when they get involved in banal road accidents, like Zeus coming down from Mount Olympus.
Sébastien Ogier reminded us of that when he had a coming together with a BMW at a bus-stop in Croatia – before winning the rally a few hours later.
This wasn’t the first time that WRC victory was rescued from the jaws of road traffic disaster. Henri Toivonen was leading the 1986 Monte Carlo Rally when he met a Ford Taunus head-on during a road section near Aubenas, sustaining the sort of damage that makes Ogier’s (pictured above) look like a carpark ding.
Back then, service crews could intervene at any point, and Lancia’s mechanics performed a miracle to cobble the Delta S4 back together again, despite a chassis that was irreversibly bent.
The rest was achieved by Toivonen himself, as he not only covered the remaining 31-mile road section fast enough to cancel out the 40 minutes that had been taken up in repairs – just think about that for a moment – but also was quick enough on the following stage to hang onto his overall lead. That was despite him not having had enough time to even change tyres.
Similarly, Colin McRae was on course for his first WRC win on the 1992 RAC Rally when he collided with a spectator’s car in Grizedale Forest. From there things unravelled, and he eventually brought his battered Subaru Legacy home in sixth.
Britain’s round of the world championship actually has an unfortunate history of road-traffic collisions. Armin Schwarz remembers being wiped out by an old lady at a T-junction in 1989, despite the fact that he was driving an Audi 200 Quattro – surely the most barge-like rally car ever made.
Add your comment