If you do this year to learn your way round, maybe next year you’ll go a bit quicker and by the third year you’ll be very competitive. We wouldn’t normally do this, but we want you to go over there and learn the roads because you will be staggered by how quick it is. “It’s one of those events where you can’t beat the Finns on their home territory until you’ve done it three times at least then you start to get on the pace,” Richards continues.“I had Colin in my office and said: ‘Look, we’re going to invest in this event for you. In 1992, Richards sent his young charger to the 1000 Lakes Rally.
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The focus was initially on the British series – Colin won it twice, in 1991 and ’92, driving a Legacy RS – but there was the occasional outing at World Rally Championship level.
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“We’d just set up the Subaru team,” explains Richards, “so I said: ‘We haven’t got a budget but let’s do it and we’ll work out how to pay for it later.’” The general assumption had been that Ford would sign Colin to drive a Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4, so Richards was surprised to hear that he had nothing lined up for the coming season.
His big break came in early 1991, when Jimmy ran into Prodrive boss David Richards. When Jimmy crashed out, Colin, who was a couple of cars behind, slowed down long enough to say, “Bloody hell – that’s a good crash for an old man like you,” then carried on to finish fifth. They’d often compete in the same rallies before Jimmy decided to scale back his own efforts in order to support Colin, and in 1989 they both travelled to New Zealand. Later came a Vauxhall Nova in which Jimmy once – and he emphasises that once was enough – acted as co-driver, then a Sierra RS Cosworth. He finished 14th, having been as high as fourth. Maybe it was a good job that I didn’t know…” The car had to be taxed and MoT’d, and it wasn’t, so they took the numberplates off the Avenger service car, fitted those, and did the rally anyway. “They thought all the stages were within Kames race circuit, but when they got there they found out there were a couple of farm stages and I think there was a quarry stage. “A guy who was a mechanic and did a bit of rallying said to Colin that they could put a ’box in it and do the Kames Rally. Colin was already into the local car club and one of the lads had a Hillman Avenger with a knackered gearbox. “I was over on the Isle of Man for the Manx Rally. “The first rally he did, I didn’t know about it,” says Jimmy, now 77, from his Lanark home.
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