McRae to stand in for broken-armed Loeb in Turkey

[Nick Koan]

Last week it was announced that Loeb broke his arm in a mountain biking accident, and yesterday they announced Colin McRae as the replacement driver for the upcoming Rally Turkey.

http://www.crash.net/news_view~t~Kro...~id~138372.htm

Kronos have announced that Colin McRae will drive their number one Citroen Xsara WRC car on the Rally of Turkey next weekend, the Scot having been drafted in to sub for Sebastien Loeb, following his mountain bike accident last week.

According to a statement from the Belgian-based outfit, Kronos team boss, Marc van Dalen has been in discussions with Citroen Sport director, Guy Frequelin since Seb broke his right arm and had surgery last week. McRae is believed to have been among five candidates in the frame to stand-in for Seb, others rumoured to have been in consideration included: Toni Gardemeister, Kris Meeke, Gigi Galli, Francois Duval and possibly even Carlos Sainz.

However van Dalen and Frequelin believe that the 'very experienced' McRae is the 'best solution' to help the Kronos Total Citroen World Rally Team defend its leadership in both the drivers' and manufacturers' championships, especially as BP Ford are only seven points behind in the race for the constructors' crown.

"The Scottish driver has accepted the difficult challenge which represents this temporary mission," read a statement from Kronos. "Highly motivated, Colin is determined to do his maximum to serve Seb and Kronos Total Citroen's interests in the fight with the competition."

Whether or not this will be a one off for McRae, who will be co-driven by Nicky Grist, has not been confirmed. However while Kronos added that Loeb wants to get 'back behind the wheel as soon as possible', the Rally New Zealand looks the most likely date for his return as this will give him over seven weeks to recover. If that does prove to be the case, McRae would also be the favourite to compete on the Rally Australia later this month.

McRae, who took the drivers' title in 1995 and who has taken 25 WRC wins, has not competed in the WRC this season. His last outing was on the Rally Australia in 2005 with Skoda. He has remained reasonably sharp though by competing in various rallies in the UK. He also took part in the X-Games Rally event in America back in the summer and knows the Xsara itself, having driven it in 2003, when he was apart of the factory Citroen Sport team, along with Loeb and Sainz.

[MattR]

Hopefully he does that cool flip trick he did at the X games.

[Kevin M]

That's old news. He needs to raise the bar to a double now.