UPDATE 2-Rallying-Former world champion Burns dies at 34
Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:52 AM GMT(adds David Richards quotes, byline)
By Alan Baldwin
LONDON, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Richard Burns, the only Englishman to win the world rally championship, has died of a brain tumour at the age of 34, his family said on Saturday.
Burns died in London’s Wellington hospital on Friday evening with family and close friends at his bedside. He had been in a coma for some days.
By a sad coincidence, his death came on the fourth anniversary of his championship win with Subaru in 2001.
The Briton was diagnosed with the astrocytoma, a form of brain tumour, after blacking out at the wheel on his way to the British Rally in Wales in 2003 where he could have won a second championship with Peugeot.
Two posts about a death in two days. It’s not all doom and gloom, honestly but this is still very sad to here of someone so young, and so talented as Richard.
World Rally had a tough time this year and the news of Richards death will hit home hard within their community.
I was shocked when I first heard the news when he pulled out of the Welsh Rally in 2003 because of a brain tumour, but at the time they thought it would respond to treatment, but alas it turned out not to be the case.