McRae crashes out
Colin McRae’s Rally Australia came to a sudden end today with terminal damage to the radiator of the Scot’s Ford Focus following a hard landing on Special Stage 14.
McRae’s car kicked high in the air over a cattle grid near the end of the stage and slammed hard into the ground on its nose, only narrowly escaping being pitched into a roll.
Although McRae was able to complete the stage with the third fastest time it was immediately clear that the car could not continue with two stages to go before service.
“I’m disappointed,” he said. “Because we’d just managed to find our rhythm and were starting to put some good times together.”
McRae had spent the first day of the event getting used to his renewed partnership with former co-driver Derek Ringer but has also been in considerable pain from friction burns on his behind following a recent fall from a mountain bike.
Team doctors have been “lubricating” the offending part of McRae’s anatomy to ease the discomfort.
With McRae now out of sixth place in the event, British interest has ended.
Richard Burns retired yesterday with clutch failure, Britain’s leading lady driver Natalie Barratt also pulled out with gear selection problems and McRae’s younger brother Alister was a non-starter as he is still recovering from his own mountain bike accident that forced him out of San Remo and caused him to withdraw from New Zealand.
Finland’s Marcus Gronholm in a Peugeot continues to hold a half-minute advantage over Norway’s Petter Solberg (Subaru) with four more stages to run today.
