Why Blundell must stay on straight and narrow

Burns a reminder of the perils out there

If over the next few days of preparation for the Network Q, which starts in Cardiff on Thursday, the ex-Formula One driver Mark Blundell needs some reasons to doubt his sanity in entering his first major motor rally, he might take Richard Burns's newly-published career story for bedtime reading. Nightmares would quickly follow.

Burns, the 2001 world champion, describes how in 1996, when he was with Mitsubishi, he faced what he thought was certain death. He had already suffered mishaps that season before he arrived for the Rally of Catalunya. He thought he was "running along quite nicely" (which, in motor rallying terms, means going like a bat out of hell).

"We were doing 165kph when I hit the brakes, but we hit the first tree at 120kph. I've never been so frightened in my life. I thought I was going to die – what else could you think when you were heading straight into a forest at such a high speed? I hit the first tree sideways, the car spun, flew up in the air backwards, hit two trees, stopped and fell to the ground." Amazingly, he was more or less unhurt, but the car was a write-off.

Blundell's co-driver, journalist Bob McKenzie, may also want to avoid reading the book, since Burns reveals that his navigator in that horrendous crash split his helmet on the drivers' seat and had inadvertently caused the crash by miscalling the corner. It should have been a third-gear one taken at not more than 50mph, but was read out as a gentle right taken flat out.

Burns says he was reminded of the dangers in a recent Rally Australia incident when he was the first driver on the scene after François Delecour and co-driver Daniel Grataloup crashed at high speed. Grataloup had multiple injuries. Burns said: "I got there and grabbed a radio from a marshal to get the stage stopped, but I felt so useless." Since then there have been calls for all drivers to have medical training.

Blundell is learning the rally trade late, which puts him at a considerable disadvantage. His experience so far with the MG Xpower team has amounted to only two recent rallies, and he admits "it's very challenging". Like most comparative newcomers, he has already experienced the ignominy and banter of ending up in a ditch and being hauled out by spectators.

He realises that up to now he has pushed himself closer to his own limits than that of the MG. Unlike road racing, he finds rallying permanently "full of action". Yet the action is almost lonely by comparison. He accepts that driving against the clock rather than rivals he can see ahead or in his wing mirrors requires a completely different mental attitude.

For Burns the season has been frustrating. Without a victory throughout, he arrives in Cardiff knowing that his Peugeot team-mate, Marcus Gronholm, has already taken away his world title and that he, Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz (Ford), Gilles Panizzi (Peugeot) and Harri Rovanpera (Peugeot) will be fighting it out for second place. Burns leads McRae by a point and the group are separated by only four.

Gronholm, who secured the title last month in New Zealand, immediately became aware of comparisons with the Formula One situation after Ferrari had taken the world title with races still left. Peugeot have won eight of this year's 13 rounds.

"My name is not Michael Schumacher," he said, refuting suggestions that he might let Burns win in Wales. He wants to equal Didier Auriol's 1992 record of six victories in a season. However, he said: "This rally is usually won by a driver from the host country. I think Richard will have the advantage." Even so, the Peugeots are not expected to be as controllable in the expected muddy conditions as the Fords and Subarus.

Again much will be made of the antipathy between Burns and McRae, yet most of that was removed last year when Burns confirmed his world title in Wales after some sharp-tongued remarks by McRae. Burns said: "It used to bother me that he had so many fans, but you can see why. He lives on the edge and sometimes falls off – it's dramatic, but I'm the fastest."

An illustrious newcomer will be Valentino Rossi, the Italian world motorcycling champion, driving a Peugeot. His occasional appearances in Continental rallies have been impressive, but the difficult conditions in the Welsh forests could well see his early exit.

Surprisingly, he considers motorcycling safer than rallying. "It's quite difficult to get hurt when you come off a bike," he said, a touch unconvincingly. "We don't have trees at the side of the track."

"Driving Ambition" by Richard Burns is published by Hodder & Stoughton, £18.99.