Richard Burns, England's first and only World Rally Champion, has died. He was 34.

I met him several times during the 1995 Beijing Rally when I was a start marshall. Not only was he very quick - his Subaru spraying me liberally with stones as he sped away from the line - but he was relaxed and friendly. Where other drivers - especially some of the Europeans - were a little full of themselves to say the least - he would always have time for a quick chat as you prepared to count him away. Remarkable that he could be so focussed on the racing, but still be able to exchange a few words with you.

He wasn't always so polite, as like all top sportsmen, Richard was wary of journalists. Articles about him generally referred to his lack of tolerance for stupid questions and consequently interviews were rare. One of the last I read was about a year ago in Car or Autocar, I can't remember, but although he was in the middle of treatment for the brain tumour that would eventually kill him, he was a fiery as ever. He was a complicated, but seriously funny, genuine, hard-working and dedicated chap. On top of that, he couldn't half drive a car.

Burns grew up in Reading and he started early; at Castle Combe race circuit, Wiltshire, in the mid-1980s. People would stare in amazement at the mop of ginger hair atop a gangly frame which stepped from the car they'd just watched drifting through corners at over 100mph. This was Richard, the under-17s car club member.

He showed the single-mindedness which would become his trademark early on. Shunning the pastimes of his contemporaries, Richard preferred working in the local garage to earn the cash which would fund his rallying, rather than touring the pubs and clubs.

He'd joined Craven Motor Club and was busily badgering anybody and everybody into helping him, when he caught the eye of David Williams, fellow Craven member, part-time rally driver and successful businessman. Williams never got a minute's peace from Richard. After buying some tyres for Richard's car, he ended up buying him his next rally car. With Williams' help, Richard dominated the national scene and went on to become the youngest ever British champion in 1993, aged 22.

Now for the world. Richard signed with the Subaru team, taking co-driver and close friend Robert Reid with him. After that, he drove for Mitsubishi, Subaru again and finally Peugeot in the World Rally Championship. As he moved up the order, Richard came face-to-face with Colin McRae, who, 10 years ago this week, became Britain's first world champion. Ironically, Richard was Colin McRae's team-mate in the Scotsman's finest hour in 1995. But as Richard became a force to be reckoned with, the battle between these two intensified and would become a regular feature of rallies around the world. Never more so than on our own Rally Great Britain in 2001, when the world title was at stake for both.

That event was typical of their differing approaches. McRae set off at a jaw-dropping pace on the November event, but Richard refused to be ruffled. He was doing his own thing. By mid-morning on the first of three days, McRae had crashed his Ford at speed. Richard went on to be champion with a fabulously controlled drive through dreadful conditions.

As he crossed the finish line he yelled to co-driver Reid "You're the best in the world". It was typical of Richard that, at the biggest moment of his life, he thought of another. When he finally brought his Subaru Impreza to a stop on that drizzly Sunday afternoon in South Wales, he climbed on the bonnet, and - draped in a Union Jack - stood on top of the world.