Motorsport: Burns 'phoned a friend'

Multi-millionaire racer Richard Burns has revealed how he powered to World Rally Championship glory - by phoning a friend!

The 30-year-old became the first Englishman, and only the second Brit, to win the drivers’ crown by finishing third in the Network Q Rally of Great Britain which finished in Cardiff yesterday.

Reading-born Burns admitted it was difficult not thinking about the title after rivals Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen had crashed out in the treacherous Welsh forests last Friday.

‘‘Of course I was thinking about the title,’’ said Burns, who snatched the championship from McRae by two points after finishing behind the Peugeots of outgoing champion Marcus Gronholm and his fellow Finn Harri Rovanpera.

‘‘Several times I would phone a friend during a road section to chat about it but as soon as we had to do a special stage then we would focus totally on that.

‘‘Being England’s first World Rally Champion sounds good. After the Safari rally I did think it was going to be a tough struggle for us to win the championship. Inside, I still had hope, but on the surface I knew that it was going to be difficult.’’

Burns, who finished over three minutes behind Gronholm, claimed the championship in his Subaru after finishing runner-up for the past two years with a run of 29 points in the last six rounds of the 14-rally season.

But Scottish ace McRae - who led the standings by two points going into the event only to barrel-roll his Ford out of contention while leading early on - has vowed to next year regain the title he won in 1995.

‘‘Congratulations to Richard - he has done a great drive and deserves the title,’’ said McRae, who before the start was engaged in a verbal war of words with the rival who has now ended his reign as Britain’s only world rally champion.

‘‘But we will be back next year stronger and better and all the more determined to take that title.’’

Burns said: ‘‘Before the start Colin came over to my car and he leant in and said ’now all the rubbish is over, let’s get on with the rally and good luck’.

‘‘It’s part of his make-up to do those things before the rally to try and get to me. Some of the things he said were completely untrue and he knows it.

‘‘But what he also said, which I think he would stick to now if he were here, was that whoever wins will have deserved it. And I hope he would still feel that.

‘‘He went fantastically fast over those first few stages and we all know that he’s not a worse driver because of this rally.’’

Burns suggested afterwards that his reputed £4.5m a year move to Peugeot would go ahead despite Subaru claiming they had an option on his services for 2002 now he was champion.

The Andorra-based driver also wished a speedy recovery to the 13 spectators who were injured when the Ford of two-time champion Carlos Sainz ploughed into them on a forest section near Carmarthen last Saturday.