It was only when the messages of support and the cheques started to pour in that Jimmy McRae understood how popular his son had been. Colin McRae was Britain’s first world champion rally driver and a serial winner in a sport in which there is the finest line drawn between life and death in a spectacular accident deep in a forest or out on a remote piece of twisting rural road.

Colin died, but in retirement at the age of only 39 in a helicopter accident last year, the tragedy deepened by the fact that Johnny, his five-year-old son, and two family friends were also killed in the crash.

“If Colin’s accident had been in a rally car, we could have understood it,” Jimmy said. “Sometimes in his career we were braced for things happening. Colin was such a flamboyant driver. But once it was all finished and he had settled down to family life, we didn’t expect something like this to happen.”

That moment on September 15, 2007 stopped the sporting world, for McRae was not only the most popular driver in the history of rallying but had developed a reputation that went beyond the confines of the cockpits of his rally cars. Housewives who would not know a rally car from a tram car knew Colin McRae, children bought his PlayStation game in their millions and fans in their anoraks turned out in their tens of thousands to watch the Scot’s spectacular driving in the British round of the World Rally Championship as he thrashed through dark forests and slewed along the tarmac.

The cars leave the start line of the Wales Rally GB in two weeks’ time, with a British success — such as when McRae and Richard Burns, his English rival, dominated the headlines — little more than a distant memory. But McRae will be represented by Jimmy and the work of the three families of those involved in the helicopter crash, for they are using Colin’s name to set up a foundation to transform the lives of children.

Colin McRae Vision will raise money for children’s charities but also help to change the lives of teenagers involved in car crime by rehabilitating them on race and rally circuits. One day Jimmy hopes to find a youngster who the charity could support to be a worthy successor to Colin, perhaps even a long-awaited British world rally champion.

“Out of such a tragedy, at least now we can see some way, because of Colin’s popularity, of raising some money and giving it back to people who need it,” Jimmy said. “The tragedy brought his popularity to light, how well he was thought of and the following he had. We were, quite honestly, gobsmacked at the reaction all over the world. We didn’t want flowers after the accident, but the donations flowed in and we ended up giving away nearly £40,000 to children’s charities. People wanted to go on from there.”

McRae’s former rally rivals, including Marcus Grönholm, twice the world champion, have been quick to give their support. The Finn is one of the drivers working on a DVD for release next year that will feature some of the world’s best roads that double as rally stages.

Colin McRae had burst on to the world rally scene to dominate some of the greatest drivers of the time, winning the World Championship in 1995. But the mix became even more intoxicating when he was joined by Burns. The pair had gone to Cardiff in 2001 in a head to head for the championship — the only time that British drivers have competed against each other for the world title. Burns took the honours to become champion and McRae had to settle for second after driving beyond his limits, his challenge ending in a huge crash.

But it was that glory-or-bust approach that endeared McRae to fans. As Burns said in his autobiography: “Colin was focused on going as fast as he possibly could. His plan is always like that — go flat out from the word go.” But the two British world champions who had survived everything that world rallying could throw at them were to die in the prime of life, Burns at the age of 34 from a brain tumour and McRae yards from the front door of his home in Lanark.

Jimmy worries that there are few opportunities to find another British star in the McRae or Burns mould because of the lack of finance and the costs of rallying. “A British rally championship effort, you are talking well in excess of £100,000 to get a proper car capable of winning,” he said. “Even then, the step up to the World Championship is greater than ever — that is serious money. You are talking millions of pounds now. Drivers in Spain or France get backing, but not here.”

Unless the Colin McRae Vision can turn up a talent who can fulfil the legacy of Britain’s most popular rally driver.

Driven talent
¤ Colin McRae was Britain’s most successful rally driver, winning the World Championship in 1995 and taking victory in 25 World Championship events.

¤ McRae is known to a generation for his PlayStation rally game, one of the biggest-selling computer games. After his death, PlayStation produced a commemorative edition.

¤ In 1991 Subaru gave McRae his chance in the World Rally Championship as a full-time professional on a salary of £10,000. In 2000 Ford made him the highest-paid driver in the history of rallying with a £6 million, two-year deal.

¤ McRae taught the basics of rallying to Valentino Rossi, the seven-times MotoGP champion, who lines up next month for the Wales Rally GB.

¤ Fans paid a tribute this year when 1,100 Subaru cars drove in a 30-mile convoy, raising £40,000 for the McRae charity and breaking a Guinness world record.

Explore More Sport

• Athletics

• Boxing

• Cycling

• Sailing

• US Sport