Alister McRae doesn’t do panicking. It’s just not him. Last Friday morning was about as close as the Scot got. Wheeling Steve Rimmer’s Ford RS200 out of the holding area towards Goodwood’s famous hill, the Group B car stopped. The door opened.
Right foot off the throttle, the big Garrett turbo charger silenced briefly, big Al leaned out of the door.
“David,” he shouted, “do you know where reverse is?”
Never having driven the car before, he’d taken a moment or two to locate a few of the most important levers and buttons. And now, safe in the knowledge he could three-point this beautiful creation, he looked more confident.
Then the first of the weekend’s biggest spots of rain landed on the windshield. Waiting to launch off the line, you didn’t need to be a master lip reader to understand the thinking.
“Oh, for f***’s sake…”
The sentiment was similar a couple of cars away in a Peugeot 205 T16 once driven – and then owned – by Juha Kankkunen. The four-time world champion’s seat was filled by James Rimmer.
Arriving at the top of the hill, James’ eyes were on stalks as he searched for the sanctuary of the chequered flag through a million rain drops. Both made it. No panic, but with no end of stories to tell as Group B reminded them why it’s still remembered as rallying’s fiercest era.
These things were beasts back in the day, but, four decades on, trying to help 500 horses find their feet on period-spec rubber and prehistoric suspension is more entertaining than ever.
That’s what the Festival of Speed is all about: one minute it’s reliving brutal memories and the next it’s seeing the here and now before your very eyes.
I’ve always loved Goodwood, but last week’s Festival was a particularly special one.
For the first time since 2019, every WRC team was back in the UK. Granted, there wasn’t a WRC round in sight, but the boys were back in town and they’d come armed with their Rally1 rocket ships.
Standing in the public grandstand watching Ott Tänak ready to light the Puma up, I couldn’t help but smile at the conversation going on next to me.
“They’re good, but they’re not Group B,” one elderly gent informed a slightly less elderly gent.
Wop-bam-bam-bam. Go. Gone.
The Red Bull-flanked Ford was up and out of there.
Next door? Silence. Seriously. If the two old boys had been wearing flat caps they would have lifted them and scratched their heads. It was a telling moment.
Welcome to Rally1.
And welcome home to the best drivers in the world. We’d missed you. Seems they’d missed Britain as well.
Cheerful as ever, Thierry Neuville smiled at the question of whether he felt his seasons had been missing something since 2019.
“Actually,” he told DirtFish, “we came straight from our test in Finland two days ago, and while I was landing I was saying: ‘I’m missing to come to the UK.’
“I haven’t been since very long and it was always a rally I loved to participate because it was a unique event, an iconic event, and just so different to any other event. It wasn’t only because of the weather, but also due to the characteristics of the stages, the long days, waking up at four in the morning, going to sleep at 11 in the night.
“Rally GB is something we are definitely missing in the WRC calendar. It was a story-telling event.”
No arguments here.
And those thoughts were universal. Tänak was at his relaxed and affable best through Friday, Sébastien Ogier did Saturday and had a ball. Petter Solberg gave DirtFish owner Steve Rimmer a ride in Steve’s own Subaru Legacy RS.
It’s genuinely hard to say who enjoyed it the most.
“What a car,” grinned the 2003 world champion.
“What a driver,” laughed the man who makes all of this possible.
The right drivers in the wrong cars is what the Festival is all about. Karun Chandhok in an ex-Colin McRae Subaru Impreza 555… co-driven by Hollie McRae? How cool is that.
The Formula 1 star smiled.
“So much fun,” he said. “That’s such a cool car and it was so good to have Hollie with me. A real honor.”
Then there was legendary Prodrive technical director David Lapworth getting behind the wheel of a Ford Escort RS1800 for the first time in his life. David Richards owns the Rothmans-liveried car he and Ari Vatanen used to win the 1981 title.
Lappy was entrusted to take it up the hill, which he did with style, grace and a new-found understanding of why his beloved Coventry-built Lotus Sunbeams struggled to bring it to the Mk2.
That I’ve got this far through this story without mentioning Juha and Vesa Mikkola driving the car that arguably shaped our modern world is remarkable. Chassis R6 was the original Group 4 Quattro which opened everybody’s eyes – ‘winning’ Portugal’s Algarve Rally by half an hour in 1981.
Hannu’s boys loved every moment, but, for me, that wasn’t the highlight of their West Sussex presence. A 15-minute DirtFish exclusive that ran close to an hour – driven by our own Steve Rimmer – was pure magic. That one’s coming your way soon.
But not all the heroes were in overalls last weekend: it was fantastic to see Toyota PR and comms guru Hans De Bauw named among the FoS finest. Four days of swearing, smoking and smiling in the rain have probably taken their toll on the big man, but we appreciate you Hansy. Last week more than ever.
