1,000 Greatest Drivers: Colin McRae

It was fitting to cover him right after Richard Burns I suppose...

I know I’m a couple days behind since I missed finishing this column (originally scheduled for December 6) after December 7 ended, but I suppose it doesn’t matter a lot since I only planned a limited release schedule this month to begin with as I am burning out with this daily grind a bit and want to focus both on my end-of-year top 200 list (which I usually enjoy writing more), some personal responsibilities I’ve been neglecting, as well as finishing up my master driver list (which there’s a chance I might complete before the 2025 season starts in earnest. Admittedly, I know some seasons have already started. The Formula E season just started today and

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holy crap, Mitch Evans going from last-to-first to tie for the most all-time wins in Formula E history is incredible. That’ll make this an E season for him even despite choking the championship if I had any doubts before. And now I know what race I will pick for him when I am scheduled to write about him on… June 24. Yes, I have almost the entire year through August plotted out.

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I always feel like a doofus writing about rally drivers since I don’t feel I know that much since while I’ve read a lot about it and collected a lot of data from it, I’ve never really watched it and I don’t feel I know enough to do many of these drivers justice. I do think McRae was easier to write about than many rally drivers because he had a cult of personality around him and he had those special legendary moments that say, this year’s champion Thierry Neuville who was never at any point the best WRC driver (even this year), did not. So it’s certainly still easier to write about McRae than it will be whenever I have to buckle down and write my Neuville entry, but because NASCAR and IndyCar are my greatest areas of expertise, it definitely takes me longer to write about drivers who specialized elsewhere, but I think I did McRae justice here.