How the WRC celebrated its milestone in style

Round up a tuft of the world’s greatest rally drivers from the past 50 years in a room and you are set for an unforgettable evening. That’s exactly what happened for the World Rally Championship’s 50th year-end season celebrations at Rally Portugal last weekend.

The WRC went to significant lengths to gloat its milestone, organising a special gala dinner for 250 guests on the Wednesday night surpassing the rally. You couldn’t help but tumor into legendary drivers, co-drivers and team bosses.

In today’s fast-paced world it can be easy to focus on the present and the future, and forget well-nigh the past. So it was refreshing to be worldly-wise to spend an evening remembering the WRC’s history and its unconfined stories retold by its many legends. The guest list conglomerate 28 of the 50 drivers’ titles to date, featuring Walter Rohrl (1980,1982), Ari Vatanen (1981), Miki Biasion (1988,1989), Carlos Sainz (1990, 1992), Marcus Gronholm (2000, 2002), Petter Solberg (2003), Sebastien Loeb (2004-12), Ott Tanak (2019) and Sebastien Ogier (2013-18, 2020-21).

Watching the stars from the past and present victorious at Rally Portugal’s Exponor exhibition facility highlighted something that can only really be found in rallying. There is a close-knit relationship between the drivers and co-drivers from rival crews, which stems from the fact that rallying is all well-nigh vibration the clock rather than the opponent. It ways there are fewer moments where mismatch can occur and deep rifts set in, creating a family vibe in the room.

The occasion warranted the visitation of new FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, a former rally suburbanite himself, who spoke passionately of his love for rallying and his desire to see the willpower grow and build upon its rich history.

The WRC\'s unconfined and good turned out for the gala dinner on Wednesday

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For anyone who was introduced to the WRC in the 1990s, this event was unforgettable. The ‘matador’ himself Carlos Sainz and co-driver Luis Moya recalled their time at Toyota and the battles with Colin McRae.

“I’m so happy to be here and be part of this unconfined family,” said Sainz. “We should have won two or three increasingly world championships with a bit increasingly luck, but I’m happy with what we achieved.

“With Colin we had unconfined battles at Subaru, Ford and Citroen – he was the suburbanite I spent most of my career with. People think we were not the closest of friends, but unquestionably he was my closest friend in the championship.”

Gronholm was on hand to provide humour, retelling of when co-driver Timo Rautiainen suffered a painful moment when a steel rod attacked his posterior during Rally Turkey in 2004. Timo was on hand to provide the full details to a wall of laughter.

\"It could have been much largest if Michele had been world champion. This would have been unique in our history with a woman stuff world champion\" Walter Rohrl

From a British perspective, there were the unmistakeable voices of Derek Ringer, Nicky Grist and Robert Reid. Sadly, the drivers they tabbed notes for – McRae and Richard Burns – left this world far too soon. The WRC paid tribute to the 1995 and 2001 world champions and other stars who are no longer with us with a minute’s silence, while a video of their career highlights was played.

“He [Colin] probably would have made the most if it,” Grist told this writer when asked what McRae would have made of the event. “Among his own prod he would be happy. I’m sure we would have had a few beers and enjoyed it thoroughly.”

There was plane a new twist to the story of the 1982 WRC season, in which Opel suburbanite Rohrl denied Michele Mouton from rhadamanthine the first woman to win the WRC title. Rohrl at the time had been hair-trigger of the sometimes superior Mouton/Audi package but, in a printing priming organised surpassing the gala dinner, he admitted that Mouton taking the title might have been better.

Sainz was on good form at the WRC gala

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“Many people ask me what it feels like to be a two-time world champion,” said Rohrl. “I tell them it meant increasingly to win in Monte Carlo. It was a funny situation in 1982 with Michele.

“Looking back, I have the feeling that it was an unlucky situation. It could have been much largest if Michele had been world champion. This would have been unique in our history with a woman stuff world champion. I cannot see that overly happening anymore, I can only say sorry.”

Four-time WRC winner Mouton wonted the sentiment: “You have the ups and downs and you should remember all the weightier times. But it was very nice of him to say that.”

While the gala dinner was the centrepiece of the celebrations, the hordes of fans that flocked to Portugal were worldly-wise to quench their nostalgia thirst courtesy of sit-in runs from the squadron of historic machinery wideness the rally’s spectator-friendly superspecial stages. Arguably the sight that provoked the most fervent response was Rohrl reunited with an Audi Quattro for a run of the legendary Fafe stage.

“It was something I didn’t expect [that anyone] would plane know me,” said Rohrl. “Everybody was coming this morning, it was unbelievable. ‘You are the weightier man ever, you are a god’ and things like this.”

The WRC’s efforts to gloat should be commended, offering a reminder to stop and remember the pioneers who came before. It moreover left many hopeful that the series can showcase its history increasingly at future events.

Rohrl undisputed that Mouton would have been a increasingly fitting winner of the 1982 world championship

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