The statue of William Wallace gazes down on the town of Lanark from the steeple of St Nicholas’s Church, but Colin Steele McRae, who died in a helicopter crash in his home county of Lanarkshire, was the Braveheart of modern times.

McRae wasn’t just a rally driver, he wasn’t just a world champion. He stirred the emotions as few sportsmen have ever done. He was a chancer, but then that was precisely what made him an irresistible hero.

He was the youngest world rally champion when he won the title in 1995, at the age of 27, and the only frustration for him and his followers was that he never became champion again. But therein lay the allure of the man. It wasn’t championships or even rally wins that made him the icon he was. It was that spectacular, seat of the pants, and, yes, risk-taking style that set him apart from the rest.

At his peak he was acknowledged as the fastest man in rallying, and he brought a buzz and sense of expectation to his home event, the RAC Rally, now Rally GB, comparable to Mansell-mania on the track.

McRae was born to compete. His father, Jimmy, was five-times British rally champion. Colin’s younger brother, Alister, also became an international class rally driver.

But the real star of the family was Colin. He never missed an opportunity to try his hand on his dad’s motorbikes, and as a young teenager explored the limits of a mini around the old mineshafts near his home in Lanark.

He had his first rally in 1985, at the wheel of an Avenger, borrowed from a friend, and although he flew off into a peat bog, he managed to continue and went all the way to the pinnacle of his sport.

His frequent excursions earned him the nickname ‘McCrash’, but he reasoned that he could harness his natural speed once he’d found the limit of his, and his car’s, capabilities.

He was signed up by Subaru and became the youngest British champion in 1991. He kept the title in 1992 and the following year became a full-time world championship driver.

In 1995 he won an intense and sometimes controversial duel with his Subaru team-mate, Spain’s Carlos Sainz, to become champion, clinching the title on home ground. At 27 he was the youngest Champion - a record he still holds to this day.

He went close again, both with Subaru and Ford, but was thwarted by a combination of unreliable machinery and his own fallibility.

In 2000, that fabled bravado almost cost him his life. He went off the road in Corsica and was suspended, upside down, in a ravine. According to his physio, he was within 15 minutes of death.

McRae admitted that was his greatest escape, but his appetite for the challenge was undiminished. Once claiming after nearling severing his finger in a crash that "its only my pinky, won't be missed". He was fearless. The following year the championship was again within his grasp, but McRae couldn’t resist the prospect of finishing the job with a flourish, and instead spectaculary crashed out at Rally GB. His demise effectively handed the title to his English rival, Richard Burns.

He achieved global status through his computer games and highly spectacular X-Games Rally America performances including rolling his car on a jump yet changeing gears upside down in preperation for landing on his wheels - only McRae would do such a thing. Such was the reach of McRae's global status that, even after 5 years out of the WRC he was by far still the biggest name in Rally.

A man who when representing his beloved Scotland at the annual Race of Champions once told David Coulthard to "get the finger out for Scotland".
In passing away Scotland lost one of its true "Sons of Scotland" and one of its few global stars.

By nature a man in a hurry, he considered his helicopter a convenient means of transport. But he insisted he only ever took risks in competition, never with family and friends. Therein lies a cruel irony.