Rally co-drivers have to be tough. Climbing into a vehicle and trusting someone else to maintain control as you fly down a twisty stage road is even beyond my personal capacity for vehicular lunacy. Here’s co-driver Paul Nagle showing just how hardcore he is with the calmest reaction ever to an imminent crash.
This was the first of two crashes of Kris Meeke’s Rallye Monte Carlo weekend, where his No. 7 Citroën C3 WRC ran wide into a hard bank on a rally stage. Meeke had already cursed over his in-car intercom to Nagle about how much more ice was on the road than was noted in their pace notes for Special Stage 4. This, unfortunately, was the inevitable end of that extra ice: a slide off the road.
As Meeke lost control of the car and Nagle’s side careened towards a hard bank to the side of the road, Nagle responded with a simple, calm, “you bastard.”
The World Rally Championship released a longer cut of the crash, however, the long bleep makes it sound like Nagle lost way more of his cool as his side of the car was about to get smashed. The weirdly calm, but stern reaction gets lost in the mix.
Meeke also swore at the incident, releasing a quality “fuck it” as he exited the car. His crew was able to repair and reenter the car for Saturday, however, an incident in between rally stages with a street car ultimately took him out of the rally.