I was at this rally back in the day, at the stage where Tommi cracked his back wheel. Same day I asked a young Alistair McCrae to sign my Subaru cap - his first drive for the team - still got it today... 25 years later. How time flies. RIP Colin.
There was an era when WRC teams were using "specialist" for surface, like Kenneth Eriksson, Thomas Radstrom for gravel, and Pierro Liatti or later Gilles Panizzi for tarmac. It all changed when Loeb showed than you just need proper driver and he can win everything (even 9 times in a row :D) I think French drivers had tough decades in WRC, when Fin's were dominating as most of calendar is gravel based. Only two french aliens changed that in the past 2 decades. I believe that Rovanpera 2022 title will change that forever - as Loeb and Ogier retired and start occasionally. In the end we can have change from French, to Finnish domination :D
