Elfyn Evans probably never thought he’d be asked to give advice to a six-time Olympic gold medalist.
But, on the interview stage at last weekend’s McRae Rally Challenge, that’s exactly what Chris Hoy was after. Hoy was contesting his first ever stage rally, and spied an opportunity to glean some tips from one of the World Rally Championship’s finest who had joined him and Hollie McRae up there.
“Anything you’ve got, please,” Hoy said.
“I’m not sure if I can offer too much, especially here it looks tricky actually,” Evans responded. “I haven’t been here before.”
Hoy’s retort was as candid and enlightening as you might expect.
“I remember, I think it was Haile Gebrselassie the marathon runner was getting interviewed before the London Marathon and he got asked for some tips for one of the presenters, and he said ‘well how long are they expecting to take?’
“They said ‘they’re hoping to crack four hours’ and he said ‘I haven’t got any tips because I’ve never run for four hours!’ So I guess it’s like you with me, there’s not much you can advise me on with the pace I’m going at,” Hoy said, smiling at Evans.
Evans, typically modest, switched the subject slightly: “What car are you driving?”
“An Evo IX, so I can’t blame the car sadly! I’ve done a little bit of circuit racing, a little bit of rallycross but rallying is all new to me.”
Hoy was in at the deep end. It’s certainly true that rallying a Mitsubishi around Knockhill Racing Circuit is a different challenge to hustling a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 in between the trees, but this was Hoy’s Everest in rallying terms.
But he didn’t sink. In fact he swam impeccably, ticking off rule number one of any rally.
“Thankfully [there’s] not a scratch on it, you can take a picture of that as evidence: no marks!” Hoy told DirtFish.
“Willie Paterson lent me this beautiful Evo IX to drive and I had the amazing guidance of Campbell Roy as my co-driver to help get me round in one piece. [There were] a few moments of drama as I’m sure there are in all rallies but what a fantastic experience.”
Hoy has been competing in various forms of motorsport – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans – for nearly a decade since retiring from professional track cycling in 2013. But despite driving rally cars for TV and in demonstrations, he had never actually driven one against the clock.
“It’s totally different because the red mist comes down, so every hundredth of a second counts,” he said, comparing simply driving a rally car to competing in one.
“But you’re also treading that fine line between overstepping it and with zero experience, you’ve got to reign that excitement in. I think the key for me was to improve stage by stage and improve and just find little ways to neaten it up, and the harder you try and drive it the messier you get and the slower you go.
“So I was trying to be smooth and think ahead but Campbell was amazing, nice and calm in the passenger seat, just keeps you right and yeah, what an experience.”
It was no accident that Hoy’s competitive rallying bow came at the McRae Rally Challenge though given Hoy regards Colin as a hero.
“I guess early 90s when he was bursting onto the scene as a young, talented rally driver,” he said when asked when he first became aware of Colin.
“When he won in ’95, there weren’t that many sportspeople in Scotland winning world titles in those days, it wasn’t the same funding and same assistance and support in general sport.
“In motorsport there’s obviously always been a great history in Scotland but Colin’s commitment, his driving style, the fact he was Scottish, the fact he was world champion, it was just I think 27 years on from his world title you can see how much he still means to everybody here.
“There’s a whole new younger generation of rally fans who are becoming new McRae fans every day.”
In true McRae fashion, there were a few mishaps for Hoy, the most costly on SS2 when he stalled: “I just sat for about a minute, had to switch everything off, try again but it wouldn’t work, tried again and it eventually restarted so we lost over a minute in the first couple of stages,” Hoy explained.
You've got to adapt haven't you, that's what rallying's all about!Chris Hoy
There was also the bizarre situation of his gear stick falling off in his hand, but he was in good company there given Ott Tänak experienced something similar as recently as Safari Rally Kenya and Colin did too in his Ford days.
“The gearstick literally snapped off in my hand and it’s got a cable on it, so it fell to the ground and I had to use the base of it which was difficult because you’ve got to lean down,” said Hoy.
“They fixed it but it loosened off on the last stage so it started to move. So rather than try and use it moving around I just used the base again which I was used to – you’ve got to adapt haven’t you that’s what rallying’s all about! It’s adapting to the environment around you.”
The end result was a fairly unspectacular 40th overall and 22nd in class, but strangely for such a competitive soul, this was the last thing on Hoy’s mind. He was just there to enjoy himself and improve his craft.
“Every time you get in the car you feel like you’ve learned and you’ve progressed, so it’s nice when you’re in your mid 40s to still feel like you’re improving at something,” he said.
“But yeah, it’s just so much fun. Feeling the car sliding around, when you hit the gravel at speed and the little section on the rallycross track, that was great fun too.
“It’s just making the most of it and getting the most out of the experience because there’s so many people that would love to be in that seat – what a lucky boy I am to be getting the chance to drive this!
“You don’t want to just drive round like Driving Miss Daisy, but you don’t want to bin it at the first corner which would be just embarrassing. So you’re trying to do it justice and do yourself justice.”
And Hoy certainly did. It would’ve been easy for him to attend an event like this and just accept the hospitality invites, say a few words and then disappear again. But that isn’t the Hoy way.
He was a fantastic asset to have on the stages and utterly endearing off them too. DirtFish recalls one particular interaction with a young fan, who looked nervous beyond belief to be so close to Hoy.
“What’s your name?” Hoy smiled.
“Finlay,” replied the starstruck wee boy.
“Well it’s great to meet you, Finlay!” Hoy reassured, crouching down to sign an autograph and take a picture.
Not many would be so welcoming and friendly, particularly as late into the weekend as this was. But not many would have the courage to compete in such a publicised event as a complete novice with a reputation and profile as large as Hoy’s.
“I’ve been doing motorsport for nearly 10 years now but never tried rallying – it won’t be the last one!” Hpy promised.
Based on everything we saw at the weekend, he’ll be true to his word. And that’s not just fantastic for him, but rallying as a whole. We could use more characters like Hoy.
