By Paul Evans
Nicky Grist and Juha Kankkunen will be honoured as the official ‘Rally Legends’ of this autumn’s Dayinsure Wales Rally GB (4-7 October) – 25 years after their famous victory on the 1993 event.
The 1993 Rally GB is remembered as one of the toughest and most challenging editions of the famous event’s long-running history.
Held late in November, that year’s gruelling event was based in Birmingham with overnight stops in Lancaster and Gateshead – with the route using roads in the grounds of stately homes throughout central England and visiting the forests of Wales, the Lake District, the Scottish Borders and Yorkshire Moors.
While there was nothing abnormal about a nationwide route, which included 35 stages totalling 340 miles of flat-out competition, the extreme wintry weather encountered ensured the 1993 RAC Rally would go down in the history books as one of the most daunting and demanding ever.
At the end of a very long event, Kankkunen/Grist won in their Toyota Castrol Team Celica Turbo 4WD ST185, finishing 1min 44sec ahead of Kenneth Eriksson/Staffan Parmander in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 1, with Malcolm Wilson/Bryan Thomas third in a Ford Escort RS Cosworth.
“They were the toughest conditions I have ever driven on in the UK,” recalled Kankkunen, who had won the RAC Rally twice previously in 1987 and 1991. “Driving on frozen ice roads without the spikes we used in winter rallies like Sweden made it very, very difficult. But we had a great event.”
“It was absolutely treacherous,” confirms Abergavenny-based Grist. “There was a reasonable amount of grip on the snow but, without studded tyres, those icy, frozen forest tracks were as hazardous as they come. Juha, though, was such a laid back character, brimming with natural talent – he took everything in his stride and, aside from getting away with one slight indiscretion in Yorkshire, it was plain sailing.”
Kankkunen was all the more relaxed as he had arrived in the UK having already safely secured his then record fourth World Championship crown. Grist, though, had missed out on the title having only joined up with the Finn mid-way through the season after regular co-driver Juha Piironen had suffered a brain haemorrhage on the eve of the Argentina Rally.
“The championship was already won but Juha really wanted to give me a first win on home soil – ‘Boyo, we will win this for you’ he promised before the start,” explained Grist, who won again four years later, this time alongside Colin McRae in a Subaru Impreza. “To win at home is always very special but it was all the sweeter in 1993 as it was my first and the conditions had been just so treacherous throughout.”
Now, 25 years on, the memories are all rushing back and the dynamic duo are thrilled that they will be sharing their amazing recollections with rally fans here in Britain.
“It will be a pleasure for me to come back to Wales again with Nicky; I’m looking forward to four days of fun and catching up with old friends,” said Kankkunen, who is approaching his 60th birthday.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back into the Toyota with Juha and whizzing around the street stage in Llandudno,” added Grist. “In fact, the more I think about it, the more I’m excited about the whole event.”
Kankkunen and Grist will be reunited in the cockpit of a Toyota Celica GT-Four – their 1993 Rally of Portugal winning car, which Grist owns – to lead a special Sunday morning parade of historic rally cars through the closed roads of Llandudno. The parade will be the perfect curtain-raiser to the rally’s street stage finale which, for the first time in the UK, will witness the spectacle of World Championship motor sport on closed public roads.
Between the two of them Kankkunen and Grist won no fewer than 44 rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship – but few were more challenging and deserved than their hard-earned success on the 1993 Network Q RAC Rally.