Britain's WRC wait can end in Germany

A Tusker or two was definitely called for. The cold ones came and went and the night grew longer and more interesting. Colin McRae had just won his second World Rally Championship round on the bounce and his 2002 season was on the up.

Little did we know, on that Sunday night in Nairobi, that a decade in the wilderness lay ahead. A generation would come and go before the next chance to write another best of British headline from rallying's top flight arose.

This week's Rally Germany is the 172nd round of the world championship since McRae scored his 25th and sadly final victory, which was also arguably his finest.

Since that Sunday in July 2002, there were times when we came close - Richard Burns came within a crushed turbo pipe of victory on the very next event in Finland. But it never came.

But now - whisper it very, very quietly - we're at the races again. Properly.

Kris Meeke's result in Finland was as good a podium as any of those McRae or Burns scored in their careers. Put into the context of a driver still short on experience of rallying's stratospheric level, the Northern Irishman's efforts to take an untroubled third in Jyvaskyla - having edged world champion Sebastien Ogier on pace through the second day - were sublime. And a huge step forward for British rallying.

In Finland, Meeke matched speed with consistency, maturity with a natural edge. In short, he came of age.

And here's the good news. Finland was a bonus - it's Germany where Meeke's best and biggest chance comes this season.

Meeke, like most drivers, cares little for the tempting of fate and is regularly amused by my concerns at talking through his Motorsport News column before a result is in the bag. But, if you're reading this, Kris, then stop. Get back to the onboards and go through Panzerplatte one more time.

The last British win came in 2002 thanks to McRae © LAT

I fear fate enough for the both of us.

Has he gone? Right, let's get on with it.

Germany this week is definitely the best chance of a 2002 Safari-style celebration for every British rally fan out there.

CITROEN'S RECORD

Looking beyond Meeke's own ability for a moment, check out his motor. It's a Citroen. Now check out the list of winners for Germany's round of the World Rally Championship. Just three drivers have won in 11 years: Sebastiens Loeb and Ogier and Dani Sordo. But just one manufacturer has won in 11 years: Citroen.

The Xsara WRC, C4 WRC and DS3 WRC have been unbeatable in the Mosel and that's something which gives great confidence to Meeke. From Loeb's first win in 2002 to Sordo's success last season, one man has been constant: Didier Clement, now the team's chief operations engineer.

Clement has seen it all. And he's sent Citroen after Citroen out in the finest and fastest possible fashion. Don't forget, it was Citroen who first used a diagonally crossed wet-dry tyre set-up on this event three years ago. Clement and Loeb tried it in testing and made it work. The rest of the service park stood and scratched its head while another win for the Versailles team was chalked up.

Clement and Meeke have a brilliant rapport and a fantastic way of working. Few knew Loeb the way his engineer did and for him to be able to offer KM encouragement from behind the scenes; to let him know that Loeb wasn't always the great, dominant rally-ruling conqueror we came to know, is as invaluable as his ability to pull the right ride-height and rollbar settings from up his sleeve.

Beyond that relationship, the DS3 WRC is a great, great rally car on any surface. But it's a proper machine in the Mosel. This was Loeb's car. Loeb was born a stone's throw from the Reisling vines, so it's no wonder his motor moves so well in these parts. And Meeke has found comfort in the car immediately.

ASPHALT PACE

Growing up in Dungannon with the Circuits of Ireland and Ulster tearing past his front door, Meeke's interest in rally cars was only natural. And when he saw the speed local heroes like Bertie Fisher and Kenny McKinstry could find - often in cars built by his own father - it was little wonder he instinctively knows what it takes to make a car tick on black top.

It would be insulting to call Meeke an asphalt specialist. And he would shy away from any kind of preference of Tarmac over the loose - but there's no doubting he has something extra special when it comes to competing on the surface where teeth were cut.

Look what happened when he went to Sanremo and Ypres for the first time - he won. He won two specialist asphalt events which are well practiced and very well known by hugely competitive locals.

Citroen has dominated in Germany for over a decade © LAT

He's competed in Germany four times and made good progress every time. On his first attempt, he was just half a dozen seconds behind his Citroen Junior team-mate Sordo when a puncture confined him to second in Junior WRC. A year later, he walked it to the class win in a C2.

An inability to land a similar result on other 2006 rallies cost him his seat with Citroen at the end of the season. Two years later, Meeke returned to take on the world, ranging a well-worn Renault Clio S1600 against Sebastien Ogier, the JWRC pacesetter and new darling of French rallying.

Admittedly, Meeke wasn't eligible to challenge the Frenchman for JWRC points, but he still showed him the way through the stages and opened up a minute-and-a-half lead over the one who would go on to lift his first world title a few months later. Unfortunately for Kris, an electrical glitch halted his Clio on the final day for six minutes.

Three more years passed before Meeke returned in a Mini and, once again, he matched team-mate Sordo for speed on many stages before an electrical problem silenced his car in the Moselland stage.

"I reckon there's some sort of forcefield in that stage," says Meeke. "The Mini stopped 200 metres away from where I stopped in the Clio.

"I hope somebody's turned the forcefield off this week..."

Don't we all.

FALSE DAWN?

There are those who will point to the fact that we've been here before with Meeke. Fair point. Looking on paper, you could identify a handful of results that would indicate the turning of a corner without the tearing of a wheel. None were like Finland.

There's no doubt that Meeke has found a new level of maturity and the kind of mental strength that comes with confirmed self-belief. He never doubted his ability to do it. But doing it always strengthens the resolve that bit further.

In Finland, Meeke showed he could live with the ultimate pace, then go a bit quicker, and then - most importantly - realise second was beyond him, throttle back and book his place on the bottom step on the podium.

The question that still has to be asked is the one about upping that ultimate pace from the first until the last stage. Let's hope he gets the chance to ask himself later this week.

And, more importantly, let's hope - and believe - he can find the right answer.

If he does, we'll party like it's 2002.