How Meeke bounced back from the brink

Zebras, Villa Carlos Paz, Sunday night. Late. Might have been Monday morning. And the DJ has the crowd jumping. Jumping.

Fresh from covering all-comers in a fine drizzle of champagne from atop the bar, DJ Kris has arrived on the decks. And he's on form. Or, should I say, he's still on form.

Last week was the week of his life behind the wheel. The Northern Irishman's drive to his maiden World Rally Championship victory was one of the most self-assured, mature and sensible demonstrations of what could be achieved in a Citroen DS3 WRC since Sebastien Loeb's career change.

Along with much of Dungannon and Killarney - Meeke's co-driver Paul Nagle's home town - I spent most of last week's Rally Argentina unable to watch split times. And unable to look away. We needn't have worried. The boys had it covered.

Arriving at the start of the final stage, Nagle admitted the pressure was really beginning to tell. Much as the pair had worked to defuse the situation, talking about anything but the intensity of the occasion, the second run through El Condor on Sunday was where it could all happen.

Meeke became only the fourth British winner of a WRC event © LAT

Moving up to the line, Meeke looks across at Nagle and says: "Will we get on the roof?"

"What?"

"At the finish, shall we get on the roof?"

"Yeah, let's get on the roof."

Nagle gives his man the 30-second warning and adds with a wink: "Let's do this..."

And they did. In some style.

I've watched and reported on Kris for his whole career and, each and every Six Nations aside, we've not had a cross word. But, when you like and respect a crew as much as I do with Kris and Paul, writing the tough stuff is hard.

Rating the crews out of 10 for AUTOSPORT's sister publication Motorsport News can be a poisoned chalice, but there wasn't a word from the boys when they landed a big fat zero last time out in Mexico.

KM had earned that one, just like he earned a full-fat 10 this time around.

Three weeks to the day before Meeke made his debut as a South American nightclub DJ, I'd met Nagle for a pint in Killarney. There was definitely an element of the last-chance saloon about Teddy O'Connors that night. And the frustration was enormous; Nagle more than anybody has seen the highs and lows alongside Meeke.

It was to him that Meeke turned when they dropped off the road in Portugal last year and said: "That's my career over, Paul." Which makes it all the more fitting that they shared the glory in Argentina last week.

Pace hasn't been a problem for Meeke in the WRC... © XPB

But what next?

Free from the monkey that had sat squarely on their backs for the last year and a bit, what can Meeke and Nagle achieve now? There's a theory that the first win opens the floodgates. So, they'll be tripping over 25-pointers all the way to the title then?

Not quite. But what this does mean is that Meeke knows how to win at the highest level. He's found the key, and that's arguably more important than the success itself. The only hope now is that he hasn't forgotten the secret after a few Sunday-night sherbets.

Don't worry. He won't have. And anyway, if he does, there are more than a few who can help remind him. Citroen team principal Yves Matton and the team's doc-cum-physio Marc Germain spring to mind.

Matton has to be singled out for an incredible show of faith in a driver he first worked with more than 10 years ago. Meeke looked to have burned his bridges with Citroen when he crashed his way out of Junior World Rally Championship contention a decade ago. Matton kept hold of his number, interested to see if KM could get his head around the concept of consistency while maintaining that ferocious pace.

Meeke's return to a Citroen in Finland in 2013 answered the question of speed. As did a qualifying stage win in Australia a few months later. But bent metal on both tested patience and resolve. Through thick, thin and occasional wafer thin, Matton kept the faith.

M-Sport's Malcolm Wilson - from whom Meeke earned his first wage in the sport, albeit as a Queens University-educated designer working on Ford Focus RS WRCs for Colin McRae, rather than a driver - wastes no time in praising both Meeke and Matton.

...and the Northern Irishman's frustrations peaked after Mexico crash © XPB

"What Kris has done is fantastic for British rallying," says Wilson. "And Yves deserves some credit as well. It's all come good for them, it's a great story."

It wasn't always so. Even Meeke admits he thought his chance had gone, mainly when Mini pulled the plug on what should have been a three-year WRC deal.

Staring down the barrel of 30 and still desperately short of experience at the highest level, Meeke steadfastly refused to try putting something together to buy a drive.

Instead he knocked on doors at Peugeot, with which he'd won the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge title, until it put him a test car. And realised what it had been missing.

The Meeke name was back being bandied around the PSA Group canteen. There was a glimmer. And a glimmer was all he needed. The door was forced, his future fixed in French.

And now this, Britain's fourth driver ever to win a round of the WRC. It still doesn't make sense; Kris Meeke has won a world-championship rally. How cool is that?

One of the best things about Meeke is that you just know success on the world stage isn't going to change him. He's not the sort. And, even if he was secretly planning to jump ship to a nice harbourside gaff in Monaco, those around him would likely laugh him out of town.

Meeke dedicated Argentina win to mentor Colin McRae © LAT

A great work-life balance has helped bring him to this point, and it's this that will help carry him higher in the future.

The big question remains: what was his secret? In the end, it turned out to be a pretty simple one. To relax.

Last year he talked about clearing his head and starting again, but it never really happened. This time it did.

Post-Mexico, Meeke walked through the front door at home and left work behind. He didn't do any overtime: no research, no onboards, no pacenotes. And he went back to work with a clear mind and a clean sheet of paper - literally, with his pacenote book.

In short, Meeke trusted his instinct to drive a car. And it served him very well last week. When will he win again? Portugal? Maybe; it's a new rally for everybody, with the kind of quick stages that suit him. And, don't forget, there's some more new bits coming on the DS3 WRC for the next round.

But what about Finland? Every driver wants Finland on their CV and Meeke has shown in the past that he has the pace to live with the locals. And Sebastien Ogier.

Who knows when the next one will come. For now, it doesn't matter. Let's give this one a moment to sink in. Britain's done it again. Thirteen long years after McRae took a typically chilled victory on the 2002 Safari, his protege has come up with the goods.

The tragedy lies in the fact that Colin and his son Johnny - among others - didn't get to see their buddy realise the dream.