Showcasing the Top Five Rally Drivers of all Time, Winners Since 1977, & List of Racing Schools to Learn

Rally drivers give us an excuse to look into the thrills of rally driving. Usually it is something we are interested in but not that we would participate in it.

Still a rally is very exciting to watch and we can appreciate the skill of the mechanics, the car itself and of course the drivers.

List of Rally Winners Championships

Below is a list of all rally winners since 1977. As you can see by far the most Sebastian Loeb has the most wins. The names in bold are the drivers highlighted in this article.

Season	Country	Driver	Vehicle	Wins
1977	Italy	Munari, Sandro	Lancia Stratos HF	3
1978	Finland	Alén, Markku	Fiat 131 Abarth	4
1979	Sweden	Waldegård, BjörnBjörn	Ford Escort RS1800	2
1980	West Germany	Röhrl, Walter	Fiat 131 Abarth	4
1981	Finland	Vatanen, Ari	Ford Escort RS1800	3
1982	West Germany	Röhrl, Walter	Opel Ascona 400	2
1983	Finland	Mikkola, Hannu	Audi Quattro A1/A2	4
1984	Sweden	Blomqvist, Stig	Audi Quattro A2/Sport Quattro	5
1985	Finland	Salonen, Timo	Peugeot 205 T16/E2	5
1986	Finland	Kankkunen, Juha	Peugeot 205 T16 E2	3
1987	Finland	Kankkunen, Juha	Lancia Delta HF 4WD	2
1988	Italy	Biasion, Miki	Lancia Delta HF 4WD Lancia Delta HF integrale	5
1989	Italy	Biasion, Miki	Lancia Delta HF integrale Lancia Delta HF integrale 16v	5
1990	Spain	Sainz, Carlos	Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165	4
1991	Finland	Kankkunen, Juha	Lancia Delta HF integrale 16v	5
1992	Spain	Sainz, Carlos	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD	4
1993	Finland	Kankkunen, Juha	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD	5
1994	France	Auriol, Didier	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD	3
1995	United Kingdom	McRae, Colin	Subaru Impreza 555	2
1996	Finland	Mäkinen, Tommi	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III	5
1997	Finland	Mäkinen, Tommi	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV	4
1998	Finland	Mäkinen, Tommi	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V	5
1999	Finland	Mäkinen, Tommi	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI	4
2000	Finland	Grönholm, Marcus	Peugeot 206 WRC	4
2001	United Kingdom	Burns, Richard	Subaru Impreza WRC 2001	1
2002	Finland	Grönholm, Marcus	Peugeot 206 WRC	5
2003	Norway	Solberg, Petter	Subaru Impreza WRC 2003	4
2004	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën Xsara WRC	6
2005	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën Xsara WRC	10
2006	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën Xsara WRC	8
2007	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën C4 WRC	8
2008	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën C4 WRC	11
2009	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën C4 WRC	7
2010	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën C4 WRC	8
2011	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën DS3 WRC	5
2012	France	Loeb, Sébastien	Citroën DS3 WRC	9
2013	France	Ogier, Sébastien	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	9
2014	France	Ogier, Sébastien	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	8
2015	France	Ogier, Sébastien	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	8
2016	France	Ogier, Sébastien	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	6

Here is a list of the top five rally drivers of all time.

Please enjoy finding out facts and interesting anecdotes about these very skilled individuals.

Tommi Mäkinen

Tommi is from Finland and although he is now retired, he was an ace on the track. In fact, between 1996 and 1999 he won every driver title possible in the rally world.

His is a four-time world rally champion. He was, of course, extraordinary talented in his field but he had the right mind set and was always very motivated to win.

Image Credit SnapLap.net

He raced for Mitsubishi and won an amazing twenty-four races whilst he was with them. Later he decided to change to Subaru but he was unable to repeat the success he achieved with Mitsubishi.

He is though, a true hero in the world of rally racing as well as being one of the most successful WRC drivers in history. He devoted sixteen years to the sport and took part in 139 rallies.

Carlos Sainz

Carlos is from Spain and he won the WRC in both 1990 and 1992 while driving for Toyota. He also finished as runner-up four times. He was known in the sport as El Matador.

He was a true sportsman and was interested in the sports of squash and football professionally. He even took trails for the famous Real Madrid team.

Image Credit: WRC.com

Eventually he turned to rally racing and diligently worked his way to becoming one of the best drivers in the world. In fact he was the first driver who was not from Scandinavia to win the Thousand Lakes Rally in Finland and even did that with a broken ankle.

He is well known as one of the sport’s classiest drivers.

Colin McRae

Colin is the most successful rally driver that Britain has produced. He was born in Lanark, Scotland and rally racing was in his blood as his father, Jimmy won the British Rally five times and his brother Alistair was also a rally driver.

Colin won the British Rally Championships in both 1991 and 1992 and he went on to become the first British driver to win the WRC Drivers’ title in 1995 as the youngest to hold the title.

Image Credit: Wikipedia.org

This is a record that he still holds. He drove for four different teams but was most successful with Subaru and Citroen.

He was even awarded the coveted MBE for his services to the sport in 1996. Unfortunately Colin died in a helicopter crash in 2007.

Juha Kankkunen

Juha won a stunning 23 world rallys and was known as the Flying Finn. He won the WRC championship four times and made his country a firm favorite for rallies along with his countryman, Tommi Mäkinen.

Image Credit: WRC.com

He had a long career spanning thirty years and during that time raced for Lancia, Peugeot and Toyota, and became world champion with all three car manufacturers and to this day is the only driver to do this.

He retired in 2002 but he still loves speed and in 2007 he drove a Bentley Continental on ice to set the world speed record in this discipline!

Sebastian Loeb

Sebastian was born in France and is a famous rally and racing driver. He is the most successful driver in the history of WRC, winning the World Championships an amazing nine times in a row.

Image Credit: AutoSport.com

He actually has won a rally 78 times. True to his country, he has only ever driven for the Citroen team. He is a true legend of the sport.

List of Top Racing Schools in the United States

Below is a list of 10 racing schools to learn how to drive a car like a professional. Not in any particular order.

Rank	School	Location	Website
1	Team O'Neil Rally	Dalton, NH	teamoneil.com
2	Porsche Driving Experience	Los Angeles and Atlanta	porschedriving.com
3	Bridgestone Winter Driving School	Steamboat Springs, Colo.	winterdrive.com
4	Exotics Racing	Las Vegas and Fontana, Calif.	exoticsracing.com
5	Frank Hawley Drag Racing School	Gainesville, FL.	frankhawley.com
6	Dirtfish Rally School	Snoqualmie, Wash.	dirtfish.com
7	Cory Kruseman Sprint Car & Midget Driving School	Ventura, Calif.	kruseman.com
8	BMW Performance School	Thermal, Calif., and Greenville, S.C.	bmwperformancecenter.com
9	Richard Petty Driving Experience	Daytona, Fla., and other tracks	drivepetty.com
10	Bondurant Racing School	Chandler, Ariz.	bondurant.com
11	Skip Barber Racing School	Braselton, Ga., and other tracks	skipbarber.com