Categories: Look backRace and classic pictures

Scotland's finest: McRae and Coulthard

Colin McRae, the youngest man to ever win the World Rally Championship drivers title, sadly left us on this day in 2007 when he was killed in a helicopter accident near Larnarck in Scotland. He was 39. McRae's five-year-old son Johnny, and two family friends, Graeme Duncan and Johnny's six-year-old friend Ben Porcelli, also died in the crash.

Here's a picture of McRae from happier times two years previously, when he took part in the Race of Champions at Stade de France in December 2005. He was part of a proudly all-Scottish Team Great Britain alongside Formula One's David Coulthard, who at the time was in his first year at Red Bull Racing having just moved from McLaren at the start of the year.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.