Twenty years ago, almost to the day, Colin McRae emerged from the rainswept glaur of the final North Wales forest stage at Clocaenog East to seal his first, and tragically only, World Rally Championship. This weekend, at the traditional WRC season finale, Wales Rally GB, the Lanark icon's achievements will be celebrated.

As a know-no-fear 27-year-old, McRae — who remains the youngest driver ever to win the WRC, and who lost his life in a tragic helicopter accident in 2007 — headed into what was then the Chester-based Network Q RAC Rally knowing he was on the verge of writing his name in history as the first Brit to win the world rally title.

The Scot started the rally equal on points with his Subaru team-mate, former world champ Carlos Sainz, but only after controversy in the previous round.

McRae, having defied team orders to back off and allow Sainz to win his home rally and set up a winner-take-all finale in Wales, finished top of the timesheets in Spain. But his infuriated Prodrive team then instructed the Scot to book into the final time check a minute late, relegating him to second. McRae wasn't happy.

"Categorically, it was team orders," he said minutes after finally registering his time. "I don't agree with it, but that's the way it is. I won the rally. We're fighting for the world championship: why should I have to finish second?

"Both of us have an equal chance of winning the championship: but I have to slow down? I could have gone to the RAC with a 10-point lead: now we go equal on points. One problem in the RAC, and I don't win the championship."

Throughout the year, and especially in the second half of the season, McRae had delivered a swashbuckling display of imperious, dazzling dominance.

After retiring from the opening two rounds in Monte Carlo and Sweden, McRae finished on the podium in the third round in Portugal.

His fifth place finish in Corsica was followed two months later by his first win of the year, when he dominated in New Zealand for the third time in succession.

That sparked a series of podium finishes, with the Scot bagging second in Australia in September, before his controversial second in Spain a month later.

And so to the dramatic finale, the RAC. At times, the feared-for "one problem" which would wreck McRae's charge to the title loomed threateningly.

On Monday morning, the second of the four-day rally, McRae's Subaru — leading the event — suffered a puncture in the 36-miler at Pundershaw. Fans lifted the left-rear of the car to help him and Glasgow co-driver Derek Ringer change the wheel. Now Sainz was a minute ahead.

Later, in Kielder Forest, the Scot clattered a rock in Kershope, but still emerged from the stage faster than Sainz, despite another puncture and damaged suspension on his Subaru . This time repairs were aided by the adroit use of a log.

To the final day, Wednesday, November 22: McRae was a man on a mission. Cheered on by thousands of Saltire-waving, mud-splattered, cold and wet fans, he delivered a flamboyant and totally committed display. It was a signature performance, achieving record speeds in the process, which won the hearts of millions of fans all over the world.

When he and Ringer flew through the timing beam in their iconic blue and yellow Subaru Impreza 555 at the end of the final stage, McRae had beaten Sainz by 36s, after more than five hours of thrilling, high-speed action.

It was to be McRae's only world title. Second in 1996 and '97 — the latter by just one point, and on both occasions to Tommi Makinen's Mitsubishi — McRae again missed out in 2001.

Entering the final round, again in Britain, on the edge of sealing the title, he heartbreakingly crashed out in his Ford Focus gifting the title, ironically, to Subaru's Richard Burns, co-driven by Perthshire's Robert Reid.

But this week marks the celebration of McRae's win.

"That week in Chester is still one of the highlights of our lives,” dad Jimmy McRae admitted. "It doesn't seem 20 years ago that Margaret and I were at the finish in Chester celebrating Colin’s achievement.

“It was such a proud moment for us all. What could possibly be better than Colin winning the World Championship on home soil?

"It’s now hard to imagine that 20 years has passed since that amazing day.

"The McRae family are humbled by the celebrations being organised in tribute to his memory."

Jimmy, the five-times British rally champ and now 72-year-old veteran, will tackle the Network Q WRGB National Rally — which shadows the main WRC event over the same stages — in his "noisy V8 Firenza".

On show this weekend at the Wales Rally GB Service Park in Deeside — not far from Chester — will be McRae's title-winning Subaru Impreza 555.

In addition, the impressive two-tier structure in the Service Park will house three of McRae’s other most legendary rally cars, his 1997 Impreza — with which he won in Britain — plus two Ford Focus WRCs.

And while seven-time Rally America champion, Welsh-based Manxman David Higgins, will drive a Group N Subaru WRX STI liveried in McRae's famous blue-and-yellow colour scheme with classic gold wheels, the potential for an emotional climax on Sunday afternoon rests on the shoulders of Kris Meeke.

The 36-year-old from Dungannon in Northern Ireland —whose early career was developed under the watchful eyes of McRae, even sharing the Scot's home as the master tutored his protege — won in Argentina this season to become the first British driver to win a WRC round since McRae in the 2002 Safari Rally.

Meeke acknowledges a podium finish on Sunday would be the perfect way to celebrate his hero, and friend.

"Colin was a special, special guy," Citroen ace Meeke said. "Everybody took a step back when Colin was coming through: you knew it was going to be on the door handles and very, very spectacular.

"I'd love to finish on the podium on Sunday. Colin’s style and commitment defined an era in the WRC and it’s right we remember what he did for the sport, and for British rallying. His legend lives on."