Richard Burns

Richard Burns

Nation:	Great Britain
World Rally Championship (WRC)
First rally:	Rally Wales 1990
Last rally:	Rally Catalonia 2003
Co-driver:	Robert Reid
Team:	Peugeot Sport Subaru World Rally Team Mitsubishi Ralliart Peugeot Talbot Sport SMSG / N. Koseki
Vehicle:	Peugeot 309 GTI Peugeot 206 WRC Mitsubishi Lancer Subaru Impreza Subaru Legacy RS
Rallies Victories Podiums WP 104 10 34 262
Championship title:	2001
Points:	351

Richard Alexander Burns (born January 17, 1971 in Reading , England , † November 25, 2005 in London , England) was a British racing driver in rallying and was World Rally Champion in 2001 .

Career

At the age of eight, Richard Burns made his first attempts at driving in a field behind his parents' house with his father's Triumph 2000 . He started driving a car club for under-17s when he was eleven and was named Driver of the Year in 1984. Two years later, his father enabled him to attend Jan Churchill's Welsh Forest Rally School near Newtown , Wales . After driving a Ford Escort there, he knew what he wanted to do in the future. He urged his father to enroll him in the local Craven Motor Club . His talent was discovered and promoted by David Williams .

Burns started the Peugeot Challenge in 1990 after David Williams financed a Peugeot 205 GTI for him. In the same year he drove for the first time to the World Rally Championship in Great Britain.

In 1993 he moved to the Subaru rally team. He drove the British championship with teammate Alister McRae . With wins in four races, he became the youngest British rally champion to date.

Stamped by Subaru as an eternal talent, he switched to the Mitsubishi rally team and won a world championship run for the first time with the rally safari in 1998 .

As a replacement for Colin McRae , who had signed a contract with Ford, he moved back to Subaru in 1999 . He won the runner-up world title that year and was able to repeat this success in 2000 . In the 2001 season he became the first Englishman to win the World Rally Championship with the Subaru World Rally Team.

In 2002 and 2003 Burns drove for the Peugeot rally team. There he finished fifth and fourth in the world championship.

illness

In November 2003 Burns was diagnosed with a brain tumor ( astrocytoma ) after blacking out on his way to Rally Wales . At that time, his opponent and friend Markko Märtin , who was in the car, saved him . The planned return to the Subaru World Rally Team in 2004 could no longer take place due to the illness. With radiation and chemotherapy Richard Burns tried to beat cancer. In April 2005, he described the therapies as "very successful". A short time later came the setback and it became clear that the tumor was not one of the curable tumors. In August 2005, Richard Burns held a Fan Day where he showed off his private car collection. At this point he was no longer able to drive and left the wheel to his co-pilot and friend Robert Reid.

Richard Alexander Burns died on November 25, 2005 at the age of 34 of complications from the brain tumor.

Others

• On July 9, 2004, a computer game called "Richard Burns Rally" was released, which he had produced in cooperation with Warthog and SCi Games.
• Subaru dedicated two special models of the Impreza to Richard Burns.
  The Subaru Impreza RB5 in 1999, which contained his initials and the start number 5 in the model name, and the Subaru Impreza RB320, which was presented in honor of Burns in 2006.

WRC victories

Richard Burns / Robert Reid at the 2001 Rally Finland with the Subaru Impreza WRC

No.	rally	year	Co-driver	automobile
1	Rally safari	1998	Robert Reid	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV
2	Rally Great Britain			Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V.
3	Rally Greece	1999		Subaru Impreza WRC
4th	Rally Australia
5	Rally Great Britain
6th	Rally safari	2000
7th	Rally Portugal			Subaru Impreza WRC
8th	Rally Argentina
9	Rally Great Britain
10	Rally New Zealand	2001		Subaru Impreza WRC

Individual results WRC

year	team	vehicle	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	Points	rank
1990	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 309 GTI	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	NZL	ARG	FIN	OUT	ITA	CIV	GBR			-	-
														28
1991	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 309 GTI	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	NZL	ARG	FIN	OUT	ITA	CIV	ESP	GBR	-	-
																16
1992	Richard Burns	Peugeot 309 GTI	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	NZL	ARG	FIN	OUT	ITA	CIV	ESP	GBR	-	-
																DNF
1993	Subaru World Rally Team	Subaru Legacy RS	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	ARG	NZL	FIN	OUT	ITA	ESP	GBR		4th	38
															7th
1994	SMSG / N. Koseki	Subaru Impreza WRT	MON	POR	KEN	ESP	FRA	GRE	ARG	NZL	FIN	ITA	GBR				8th	19th
					5
	Subaru World Rally Team
										DNF			DNF
1995	Subaru World Rally Team	Subaru Impreza WRT	MON	SWE	POR	FRA	NZL	OUT	ESP	GBR							16	9
					7th		DNF			3
1996	Mitsubishi Ralliart	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	SWE	KEN	IDN	GRE	ARG	FIN	OUT	ITA	ESP						18th	9
					DNF		4th		5		DNF
1997	Mitsubishi Ralliart	Mitsubishi Carisma GT Evo IV	MON	SWE	KEN	POR	ESP	FRA	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	IDN	ITA	OUT	GBR	21st	7th
					2	DNF			DNF	4th	4th		4th		4th	4th
1998	Mitsubishi Ralliart	Mitsubishi Carisma GT Evo V.	MON	SWE	KEN	POR	ESP	FRA	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	ITA	OUT	GBR		33	6th
			5	15th	1	4th	4th	DNF	4th	DNF	9	5	7th	DNF	1
1999	Subaru World Rally Team	Subaru Impreza S5 WRC	MON	SWE	KEN	POR	ESP	FRA	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	CHN	ITA	OUT	GBR	55	2
			8th	5	DNF	4th	4th	7th	2	1	DNF	2	2	DNF	1	1
2000	Subaru World Rally Team	Subaru Impreza S6 WRC	MON	SWE	KEN	POR	ESP	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	CYP	FRA	ITA	OUT	GBR	60	2
			DNF	5	1	1	2	1	DNF	DNF	DNF	4th	4th	DNF	2	1
2001	Subaru World Rally Team	Subaru Impreza S7 WRC	MON	SWE	POR	ESP	ARG	CYP	GRE	KEN	FIN	NZL	ITA	FRA	OUT	GBR	44	1
			DNF	16	4th	7th	2	2	DNF	DNF	2	1	DNF	4th	2	3
2002	Peugeot Total	Peugeot 206 WRC	MON	SWE	FRA	ESP	CYP	ARG	GRE	KEN	FIN	DEU	ITA	NZL	OUT	GBR	34	5
			8th	4th	3	2	2	DSQ	DNF	DNF	2	2	4th	DNF	DNF	DNF
2003	Peugeot Total	Peugeot 206 WRC	MON	SWE	DOOR	NZL	ARG	GRE	CYP	DEU	FIN	OUT	ITA	FRA	ESP	GBR	58	4th
			5	3	2	2	3	4th	DNF	3	3	3	7th	8th	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Web links

Commons : Richard Burns  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Richard Burns Foundation
• Richard Burns Rally ( Memento from November 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (computer game)
• Memoriam with many pictures

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard Burns (ewrc-results.com on July 24, 2014)