Magic Meeke's Maiden Win!

[Cess]

On the RMS Blog: Northern Ireland's Kris Meeke clinched his first ever World Rally Championship (WRC) win in Argentina today, when he brought his Citroen DS3 WRC home 18.1 seconds ahead of his team-mate, Mads Østberg. By doing so, Meeke became the first British driver in thirteen years to claim a victory on the world stage, following in the footsteps of his close friend and mentor, Colin McRae.(Read the Full Article Here)



Read the Entire Article Here

 

[chris_b]

such a result

 

[FM155]

Yeeeooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
Great result, hopefully it'll give him the confidence to carry on and start fighting for the championship.

 

[Dave..]

Brilliant news [emoji106]

 

[Artoir]

Long time coming, fair play to him.

 

[ilovequo]

Fantastic!
Anyone else remember that weekend on the Ulster when drove a yellow C2!?
Led the pack (with 6-10 wrc cars) right through to the last few stages when it started to rain...
Class Act

 

[Cess]

Almost! It was mainly red/white and sponsored by Charles Hurst Citroen. Finished second, I think. Donnelly got past him in the Corolla and McNulty wrote off his Impreza on the first or second stage in a massive accident.

 

[Graham]

nothing was sweeter than a proper S1600 car

 

[NIXR2]

Kris has always had the talent but at least now he is getting the machinery to prove his worth!! Well done again to Kris and Paul!! Long may it continue!!

 

[FM155]

nothing was sweeter than a proper S1600 car

F2 cars were pretty good too. Clio maxi, Megane maxi, 306 maxi, Escort, Golf, Sunny etc. Was a great wee era too.

 

[Woodcutter]

Fantastic news, great to have another NI man at the top of his game on the world stage.

Hope he can continue winning.

 

[ilovequo]

Corrected.

 

[Graham]

Fantastic news, great to have another NI man at the top of his game on the world stage.

Hope he can continue winning.

Two men in fact as fermanagh man Marshall clarke lifted gold in wrc2 category navigating for al kuwari I think it is.

Also Chris Patterson from ballyclare got 6th overall in wrc from the navigation seat for al kasimi

 

[Cess]

One of the Patterson clan work for Dmack and got Jari Ketomaa to record a very funny video congratulating Kris Meeke.

Hearing a Finnish man say "I always thought you couldn't drive sheep with 2 good dogs" and "Good man, yer Da" was a touch of class.



Seems to be a very popular win around the service park. Lovely to see how many drivers hung around to see Meeke bring her home. Al-Qassimi and Chris Patterson were amongst the first to congratulate him. Meeke and Nagle have gone along way since that first run out on the Easter stages in 2007.

For those of us that always knew and believed the pair were world class, now there is undisputable proof.

Good man, yer Da!

 

[Graham]

Interesting read here folks and although McRae got meeke into the JWRC more or less it was actually the late great Bertie Fisher who got the ball rolling with Meeke's career and when mid plans he was killed Kieran McAnallen funded Meekes first season on the wish of Fisher...


In 2009, the newly-crowned IRC Champion, Kris Meeke, was a PR's dream. In the slick marketing world in which we live, Meeke is the kind of person that companies always want to be associated with. He has charm, personality, and seems to be always smiling ... but things weren't always so straightforward ...

The Meeke name has been synonymous with Irish rallying for many years. His Father - Sydney is recognised as one of the leading motorsport preparation experts in the country, and worked on the majority of cars rallied by the late great Bertie Fisher.

Kris had been around motorsport since he was a young boy, so it was no surprise that he developed a taste for it (despite having failed his driving test at his first attempt). Kris was not really interested in driving; instead, he got his head down and got a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Queen's University Belfast. After successfully completing his degree, Meeke joined Malcolm Wilson's Cumbrian-based M-Sport, the headquarters for the Ford World Rally Team, as a computer-aided designer. Working with M-Sport made Meeke yearn for a competitive drive ...

In 2000, Peugeot ran a competition to find the young rally stars of the future. Kris entered the competition and got through to the finals at Silverstone. He won the contest, and the first prize was some funding to take part in the Peugeot Super 106 Cup in 2001.
The first person to realise Kris' potential, was Bertie Fisher. He went to see 'rally scout' Gerry McGarrity, who had been working with Mark Fisher, Bertie's son, and told him that he had seen real talent in Kris. Bertie Fisher had a plan - he would try to get Meeke a car to go rallying.

Kris was still working at M-Sport in Cumbria and didn't know that plans were afoot for him to get his foot onto the rallying ladder. Unfortunately, on a bleak day for Irish rallying (January 21st 2001), a tragic helicopter crash occurred, Bertie, son Mark, and daughter Emma all died as a result.

Mark Fisher had been following in his father's footsteps as a rally driver, and, just before the sad events of January 21st 2001, had signed a contract to drive for Peugeot UK. Gerry was supposed to run Mark Fisher in the Peugeot Cup in 2001, but that was not to be. After the dust settled, Gerry spoke to Kris to see if he wanted to drive in some sort of rally championship.

The wheels were set in motion when Gerry received a phone call from Kieran McAnallen (of Toughmac fame), a long-time friend and sponsor of Bertie Fisher. Kieran told Gerry that Bertie had said that Kris had something special. With the long-standing friendship between the Fishers and the McAnallens, Kieran decided that he would carry out Bertie's wishes and give Kris an opportunity to show if he had what it took to be a champion.

Before he left for Coventry, Kieran told Gerry to make sure he came back with a car for Kris, and that he would bankroll it.

Bertie's son Mark had a drive for 2001 in the Peugeot Cup championship, but, due to the fatal helicopter tragedy, Gerry had to return the Peugeot rally and recce cars to Peugeot UK in Coventry. When he arrived at Peugeot he had a chat with Mick Lindford (the Peugeot Sport Manager), and said that he needed a rally car for a young guy called Kris Meeke. The first meeting with Lindford went well, so McGarrity chatted to Vic Lee, who ran the Peugeot BTCC team, and said, in no uncertain terms, that he intended to leave with a Peugeot rally car.

Source: http://www.veloce.co.uk/shop/products/popup.php?prod_id=V4071&text=Sample+Text

 

[Cess]

Yeah, that's from that book that was published after his IRC title.