Why McNish picked the right time to stop

What do you say when one of the greatest drivers of his generation in your branch of the sport phones to say he is retiring? I wouldn't have been able to answer that question earlier in the week, but now I know. "Thank you" and "well done" were the words I said to Allan McNish when he dropped his bombshell yesterday afternoon.

That's "thank you" for all the amazing drives that I have witnessed down the years, and for being so open - a journalist's dream in fact. And "well done" for a bloody great career and knowing when to call it quits, surely the mark of a great sportsman.

When McNish says that the stars have aligned to make this the perfect time to retire, he's absolutely right. He is going out at the top as a world champion and when there's a new era starting in 2014 with a new breed of LMP1 machine. It's a perfect time for a clean break.

Sportscar racing without Allan is going to be a little odd, I have to admit. His career and mine with AUTOSPORT have largely overlapped. I started on the sportscar trail a couple of years before him and didn't take time out to go to Formula 1. But, with the exception of three years in the early noughties, I've reported on a majority of the races he has contested.

Petit Le Mans 2008: McNish crashes pre-race but still wins © LAT

To use the word contested, however, underplays his achievements, abilities and the part he has played in the history of long-distance racing. Just think of all the victories and all the times when the little Scot with the tartan band on his helmet made the difference between winning and losing for Audi. And I'm lucky enough to have seen most of them.

I suspect I'll go to my grave believing that the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours was the best ever. Maybe we'll get a more exciting race at some point in the future, but it will take some doing. McNish and team-mates Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello were imperious that day - and even better in the night.

And I doubt if I'll ever forget Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta later the same year. McNish famously crashed on the way to the grid, but was still standing on the top step of the podium at the end of the race. In between times there was some classic McNish.

Sebring 2009 is another of my personal favourites from the long list of great McNish performances. He was mighty on the debut race of the Audi R15 TDI and his comeback against the Peugeots was something special.

Then there's Laguna Seca 1997, McNish's breakthrough race as a sportscar driver with Porsche, and Sears Point 2000, when he annihilated the in-house opposition at Audi. I could go on. And on.

Maybe the great McNish performances have been getting more sporadic over recent seasons. But we were certainly treated to one at Silverstone in April this year, and nor should we forget about Le Mans this summer and his third victory in the great race.

The Sears Point American Le Mans Series race in 2000 was another classic McNish drive © LAT

Some have cited Le Mans as evidence of McNish's fading powers, pointing out that he wasn't as quick as his team-mates, let alone the delayed Audi R18 e-tron quattro shared by Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler. Yet that is to miss the point.

McNish and his team-mates had to bring their car home ahead of the Toyota that was keeping a watching brief a lap down. They did that, and if Allan was more conservative than his co-drivers, then so be it. Don't forget that he was returning to Le Mans after big accidents in the previous two years, crashes that the same doubters argued sounded the death knell for his career.

He and team-mates Kristensen and Loic Duval had to soak up immense pressure, knowing that the slightest mistake would almost certainly hand the race to their rivals. They proved equal to the task and for that reason it has to be described as a great performance from all three of them.

McNish didn't just become a world champion and win Le Mans in 2013, he had a really good year. You could probably split the season down the middle: he and his team-mates had the edge in half the races, and Lotterer and co in the other half.

I'm sure that played a part in his decision. Allan has talked about ticking the final box of an illustrious career but, if he hadn't driven well this season, I don't think he'd be hanging up his helmet with such satisfaction.

Or even at all.