After securing his first victory in the FIA World Rally Championship on last weekend’s XION Rally Argentina Northern Irishman Kris Meeke had a chance to look back on what has been the biggest moment in his career to date.
The Citroen driver won the fourth round of the series by 18.1 seconds and writing on his website on Wednesday Meeke said a victory was never in his mind coming into the event.
“After our troubles this year, and a few mistakes, we went to Argentina simply trying to put my season back on track, get the head down and get some points,” said the Northern Irishman.
“To be honest, probably a top five finish would have been something I’d have taken before the event. But when we arrived, I more or less had to start with a clean sheet of paper with the pace notes, so I just got back to basics.”
Meeke took the lead on stage two after a number of high profile drivers hit trouble and never relinquished it. The Citroen driver expressed his thanks to a number of people including his team, Citroen Team Principle Yves Matton and his co-driver Irishman Paul Nagle. But Meeke left his biggest thanks to one man.
“It was something very natural for me to dedicate the win to Colin [McRae], because he took me right from the beginning – or when I’d only done a few rallies – and put me through all the difficult steps into the British championship and Junior World Championship,” said the Northern Irishman.
“Without that support back then I simply wouldn’t have had a career in rallying.”
The next round of the WRC is Rally Portugal and kicks off on May 21.
