Richard Burns

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For other people named Burns, see Burns (disambiguation).

Richard Burns (January 17 1971 – November 25 2005) was a world champion rally driver, who topped the World Rally Championship scoresheets in 2001 having wound up runner-up in both 1999 and 2000. He was born in Reading, Berkshire, England.

He started driving in a field near his house at the tender age of eight, in his father's old Triumph 2000. At eleven Richard joined an under-17's car club, where he became driver of the year in 1984. Just two years later his father arranged a trip to Jan Churchill's Welsh Forest Rally School near Newtown, Powys where Richard drove a Ford Escort for the day, and from that moment on Richard knew what he wanted to do. He badgered his father into letting him join the Craven Motor Club in his home town Reading where his talent was spotted by rally raconteur and enthusiast David Williams. He rallied the stages of Panaround, Bagshot, Mid-Wales, Millbrook, Severn Valley, Kayel Graphics and the Cambrian Rally.

In 1990 he joined the Peugeot Challenge after David Williams bought Richard a Peugeot 205 GTI and where he got his first taste of a World Rally Championship event in Great Britain.

In 1993 he joined the Subaru Rally Team for the British Rally Championship alongside Alister McRae where he won four rallies on the Vauxhall Sport, Pirelli, Scottish, and Manx International stages delivering Richard the title of the series' youngest ever champion that year. 1996 saw an opening with Mitsubishi at international level, seized upon with sufficient vigour to guide Burns to victory on that year's Rally New Zealand - albeit then, only a fixture within the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Even so, the fending off of such calibre competition as works-backed Subaru heavyweights Kenneth Eriksson and Piero Liatti only added gloss to an increasingly fervoured reputation.

Come 1998, he had won his maiden World Rally Championship event on the treacherous stages of the Safari Rally, piloting a Mitsubishi Carisma GT. 1999 culminated in a more substantial championship showdown, Burns working his way to second place in the standings - and adding to his win tally, despite being upstaged by virtue of a team order mix-up on the Rally Argentina by fellow Subaru works driver Juha Kankkunen. He was a long-time contender for the title in 2000, but crashed out in Finland in mid-season handing the momentum to eventual champion, and future team-mate, Marcus Gronholm. Even so, a stirling comeback from the lower reaches of the top thirty to win on the season-ending Rally of Great Britain was sufficient to keep the Burns name well entrenched within public conscience.

The 2001 rally season began inauspiciously for Burns - neither of the season curtain raisers, the Monte Carlo Rally or the Swedish Rally, yielded points scores, placing in peril before it had began, the Englishman's title bid. A sturdy fourth place in a rain-drenched Portugal kicked his campaign into action prior to second place finishes on the arresting gravel of Argentina and Cyprus, on both occasions to Ford's Colin McRae. Nonetheless, both the Scotsman and Monte Carlo victor Tommi Makinen were later to hit upon snags of their own - and, one victory over McRae later, this time in New Zealand, on Sunday November 25, 2001, Burns became the first Englishman to win the World Rally Championship. Richard drove his Subaru Impreza to third place in the Rally Of Great Britain. When Richard passed the finishing line at the final stage of the final rally in 2001 the famous words popped out of Richard's mouth paying tribute to his codriver Robert Reid: "You're the best in the world". Subaru produced a special edition of the Subaru Impreza in the UK called the RB5[1][2]. A messy legal battle ensued for the Englishman's services for 2002, from which fresh suitors, 2000 and 2001 Manufacturers' Champions Peugeot emerged victorious.

The existing tally of ten WRC triumphs, however, was not to be added to, with the quest for a second world title equally fruitless for Burns. He cobbled together a fine title challenge for much of 2003 - a feat which did not convince him to remain put at the wheel of the 206 WRC. The gloomy prospect of a continued winning drought with the Frenchmen left Burns poised to rejoin[Subaru for the second time for the 2004 season, the ploy being to couple him with the eventual 2003 title winner, Norway's Petter Solberg. In November 2003, however, with the Englishman heading to the season-ending Wales Rally GB still in the frame to duke it out for that title, Burns suffered a blackout while driving to the rally. He was withdrawn from the event (and thus the title fight) and duly diagnosed with an astrocytoma, a type of brain tumour. He did realise a brief stint out of hospital in Summer 2004, only to be made to return, undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as well as surgery in April 2005 that was described as "very successful".

Late on Friday, November 25, 2005, four years to the day after winning the World Rally Championship, Burns died at the age of 34, after having been in a coma for some days. His death was sadly overshadowed by the much covered death on the same day of football legend George Best. The British television show, Top Gear, well known for its critical attitude toward most celebrities, played a tribute to Burns on the December 4, 2005 show.

A memorial service for Burns was held at St Luke's Church in Chelsea on Thursday 22 December 2005. With readings from BBC TV's Jeremy Clarkson and Steve Rider, and a tribute paid by one of Burns' closest friends, photographer Colin McMaster, it was a moving and appropriate tribute to a great talent.

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