Nicky Grist

However, due to reliability issues with the new Ford Focus WRC they only managed to finish 6th in the WRC with 23 points.

The season ended with a 2nd place in the championship and 42 points, two points behind fellow Brit, his arch rival Richard Burns.

However, even with two wins and three seconds to support Sweden's third place a further 6 retirements after the initial Monte Carlo Rally retirement meant that they ended up 4th in the championship with 43 points overall.

The team finished 3rd with 45 points and gave Subaru their third consecutive manufacturer's title.

Nicholas Mark Grist (born 1 November 1961) is a Welsh former rally co-driver, born in Ebbw Vale.

With 6 retirements and 5 wins, Grist and McRae came 2nd overall with 62 points, giving the Subaru team the manufacturer's title.

In 1991, he competed in six rounds of the WRC with Malcolm Wilson and the Ford Motor Company.

In 1992, only competed in the Safari Rally of the WRC with Toyota Team Europe with driver Mikael Ericsson where the team came fourth.

Also co-ordinated with the team for Rally Acropolis and Argentina giving him an insight into the inside working of Team 2.

Grist joined Mitsubishi with driver Armin Schwarz, in the WRC, but during the Rally Argentina joined Juha Kankkunen.

With Kankkunen he went on to win the rally Argentina, Grist's first WRC win.

Kankkunen and Grist went on to win two more rallies, Rally Australia and the Rally GB.

This secured Kankkunen's fourth WRC win.

His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1993 to 2002.

He won 21 rallies with more than one driver.

Grist's first WRC win was in the Rally Argentina in 1993 with Juha Kankkunen, who at that time was a three times WRC champion.

Grist and Kankkunen went on to win the 1993 WRC championship with Toyota.

Halfway through 1993 Toyota and Kankkunen bought Grist's contract and he moved to the Toyota team full-time competing in the Celica GT4 ST185.

The season began well with a second in Monte Carlo and a win in Portugal, but during the Safari Rally, crashed at 180 km/h after hitting a pothole that had formed due to the rain.

By mid season Grist and Kankkunen were tied at the top of the points with Carlos Sainz, but after mechanical problems and the a crash in Finland put them 20 minutes behind and they finished the WRC in 3rd position.

In 1995, with only two rallies to go, Kankkunen and Grist started the Rally Catalunya in a comfortable lead, seven points ahead of Colin McRae and the 555 Subaru World Rally Team, when they crashed and had to retire.

After the Rally Catalunya, Toyota were found guilty of the implementation of illegal turbo restrictor bypasses on their ST205 cars.

The team was given a 12-month ban by the FIA.

In 1996, Grist competed with Kankkunen for private Toyota teams in three events and finished fourth in Sweden, third in Indonesia and second in Finland.

Joined the 555 Subaru World Rally Team on a two-year contract as Colin McRae's co-driver.

Grist stayed as Kankkunen's co-driver until 1997 when he joined Colin McRae with the 555 Subaru World Rally Team.

In 1998, Grist and McRae had 5 retirements and 3 wins together with the same team, with the win in Corsica, giving Grist his first win on tarmac.

In 1999 Grist and McRae moved from Subaru to the M-sport Ford team of Malcolm Wilson, Grist's driver during the 1990 to 1991 WRC seasons, where they had two consecutive wins at the Safari Rally and Rally Portugal.

The 1999 season of retirements only finished in the February 2000 when they finished 3rd in the Swedish Rally.

With the improvement in reliability of the Focus WRC 00 towards the later half of 2000 Grist joined with McRae, signed a further two-year contract with Ford, and started 2001 with three retirements and a 9th at the Swedish Rally.

The middle of the 2001 season showed better with 3 consecutive wins, followed by a retirement on the Safari Rally, and then two podium finishes.

Grist remained Colin McRae's co-driver until the Rally New Zealand 2002, during which time the pair won 17 rallies, 27 podium finishes and gained overall 183 WRC points.

Between 2002 and 2006, Grist and McRae also competed together in a number of one-off rallies.

Grist started his career as a golf professional at the Monmouthshire Golf Club, and then joined a local car sales centre, where he was given Sundays off.

This gave him the opportunity to enter into the relatively inexpensive motorsport of road rallying.

His first rally was the George Ford Pips Rally, held in Caldicott in Wales, in a Ford Escort with Bryn Wiltshire driving.

Grist became a full-time professional co-driver with the Ford Motor Company and driver Malcolm Wilson.

Competed in the British Open Championship in a Sierra Sapphire Cosworth.

Also took part in a test and development programme with Ford's new 4x4 Sapphire Cosworth, consisting of three WRC events, giving Grist his first experience of a WRC event outside Britain.

2002 was Grist's last competitive season of WRC, and again saw him co-drive for McRae and Ford.