Richard Burns: Richard Burns, who has died from a brain tumour aged 34, was held in the same respect and admiration by rallying enthusiasts as formula one fans reserve for the likes of Jenson Button and David Coulthard.
In 2001 Burns won the World Rally championship and, together with his Scottish contemporary Colin McRae, was responsible for the sustained interest and growth of the sport as a televised spectacular over much of the past decade.
Quiet and somewhat introspective, Burns quickly consolidated a reputation as a meticulous and calculating competitor who scored nine victories in world championship rounds during an eight-year career in rallying's international front line.
Burns, who was born in Reading, was eight when his father let him drive a car in a field near their home. He was barely 15 when his father took him to a rally school. As soon as he could drive he began rallying a Talbot Sunbeam, and by 1990 he had won the Peugeot 205Gti Rally Cup. Burns drove a Group N Subaru loaned by Prodrive on a couple of occasions and had his first outing in that year's RAC Rally in a Peugeot 309Gti, finishing an impressive second in the Group N category. In 1992 he drove a Group N Subaru Legacy in the British championship and the following year drove a Group A Legacy in the British championship as team-mate with Alister McRae, Colin's younger brother. In tandem with McRae's emergence as a world-class rally driver, David Richards and his Prodrive rally preparation company steadily nurtured Burns's progression through the sport's lower ranks. In 1994 Burns competed in a handful of international events in addition to the Asia Pacific championship, but what he felt was a lack of a certain future with Subaru persuaded him that his career path would be best served by a switch to the Mitsubishi team, where he spent three fruitful seasons.
In 1998 Burns scored his maiden world championship win on the gruelling Safari rally, driving for Mitsubishi, following that up with a home win on the RAC Rally. In pure statistical terms this was his best season up till then, netting sixth place in the world championship with 33 points, but the pressures of running alongside such a consistent performer as world champion Tommi Makkinen proved onerous. Therefore when McRae left Subaru to move to Ford at the end of 1998, Burns decided to accept an offer by Richards to return to Prodrive and the Subaru camp in 1999.
For 1999, Burns started confidently despite having a very formidable team mate in the form of Finland's Juha Kankkunen. The British driver enjoyed an excellent season with Subaru, finishing runner-up to Makkinen in the championship with 55 points and again winning the RAC Rally to the joy of the shivering spectators who cheered him on from the edge of the muddy Welsh forest stages. In 2000 he won the RAC again, but that was not sufficient to depose a new title threat from Marcus Gronholm.
It all finally unfolded in his favour in 2001, when he clinched the championship crown. Burns had taken the decision to switch to Peugeot after a disappointing first half to the 2001 season. But then the Subaru team really rallied round him during the second half of the year and he won the championship after all. "Richard felt this was the right thing to do, but he had a storming finish to the season," said Richards. "However, he didn't tell Peugeot that he had a catch-all contract saying that if he was world champion then he had to stay with Subaru for a further year." Yet neither Richards nor Burns harboured any significant long-term hard feelings over this particular spat, which was resolved by a legal settlement.
At the end of 2003, after two seasons with Peugeot, Burns accepted a new Subaru contract for the following season as Makkinen's successor, once the famous Finn had retired from driving. Tragically, just prior to the 2003 Wales Rally GB, Burns blacked out at the wheel of his road car. Initially he hoped he would only miss a season while he sought treatment for the condition, but it proved a forlorn hope and Burns never competed again.
He is survived by his partner, Zoe Keen, and his father Alex.
Richard Burns, rally driver, born January 17th, 1971; died November 28th, 2005