I can only hope that this got covered in the prerace show of Loudon as the little bit at the end was an absolute joke and nothing more than an afterthought...but I figure that was the first they mentioned about it so I might as well do this; former World Rally Champion, Colin McRae (and three others; two family friends and his son, Johnny), was killed in a helicopter crash over the weekend.

It is my opinion that McRae caused the explosion of Subaru WRX sales in my part of the world and also increased the global awareness of rallying with his Playstation games.

Born in 1968, McRae made his WRC debut in 1987 driving a Vauxhall Nova before joining forces with Subaru in 1991. His first overall round win came in 1993 in Rally New Zealand before going on to win the title in 1995. Including Vauxhall and Subaru, he also raced with Ford and Citroen (and subbed for an injured Sebastian Loeb last year) while making one-off appearances for Skoda in 2005. He won a, then record, 25 rounds, his last being the 2002 Safari Rally in Kenya.

I may not follow rallying all that closely (I prefer tarmac racing to dirt), but those drivers are the best in the world...without question.

Yes, both F1 and NASCAR (the two series I follow the most) drivers have amazing reflexes and drive at stupidly high speeds...but only in the world of rally would you find the slightest mistake meaning you risk a 300 foot drop (and higher) off a cliff with only trees slowing the fall.

McRae may have only won the title once, but he was one heck o####reat driver

Colin (and his son) leaves behind his wife and daughter...to which I give my sincere condolances through this horrible time.