Bruno Thiry (born 8 October 1962) is a
Belgian rally driver. He was born in
St. Vith
St. Vith (german: Sankt Vith ; french: Saint-Vith ; lb, Sankt Väit ; wa, Sint-Vit) is a city and municipality of East Belgium located in the Walloon province of Liège. It was named after Saint Vitus.
On January 1, 2006, St. Vith had a total ...
,
Liège Province
Liège (; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is the easternmost province of the Wallonia region of Belgium.
Liège Province is the only Belgian province that has borders with three countries. It borders (clockwise from the north) the Du ...
.
He began his career as an amateur in 1981, driving a
Simca, and quickly became very successful in the Belgian Rally Championship. by 1991 to 1993, he joined the
GME team that contested only in some selected
World Rally Championship (WRC) events and in non-WRC events. In 1992, he managed a first podium finish for him on the final running of the notorious
Rallye Côte d'Ivoire and finished second in an ex-works
Opel Kadett GSI. The following year saw Thiry win some WRC events in an
Opel Astra in the F2 category and brought GME its first manufacturer's title of the inaugural FIA 2-Litre World Cup in 1993.
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
, the year saw Thiry join the
Ford team to contest the WRC, driving a
Ford Escort RS Cosworth. In these years, he managed several third places; in the
RAC Rally in 1994 and in
Rally San Remo and the
Rally Catalunya in
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
. He finished fifth overall in the WRC standings in 1994.

In 1997, he won the Rally of the Azores in a privately entered Escort Cosworth. The
following year saw Thiry continue with Ford and he contested thirteen events with the exception of the
Safari Rally and
Rally Portugal due to an accident that caused Thiry two broken ribs and he was replaced by
Ari Vatanen as the second driver for the team. Then in
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
he campaigned a
Subaru Impreza in his role as third driver for the Subaru World Rally Team.
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
saw Thiry joined the
Å koda Motorsport team and he had a disappointing year in the
Octavia WRC. His highest placings that year were eight place in the
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeast ...
, the
Cyprus Rally and
Rally Great Britain
Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calen ...
.
In 2002 and 2003, the
Peugeot 206 WRC was Thiry's vehicle of choice. He won the
Ypres Rally both years, and became
European Champion in 2003 after five victories. In 2004, he was runner-up in a
Citroën C2 S1600.
Since 2005, Thiry has more or less retired from motorsport and only occasionally competes on events. A notable recent result was a second place on the Rally of Condroz in 2006, driving a
Peugeot 307 WRC. His
co-driver for most of his rallying career was fellow-Belgian
Stéphane Prévot
Stéphane Prévot is a Belgian rally co-driver.
Prévot was born in Huy. He has codriven for 74 rally drivers, including Bruno Thiry, François Duval and Chris Atkinson
Chris Atkinson (born 30 November 1979 in Bega, New South Wales, Austr ...
.
WRC results
External links
Stats at RallyBase
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiry, Bruno
1962 births
Living people
People from St. Vith
World Rally Championship drivers
European Rally Championship drivers
Belgian rally drivers
Sportspeople from Liège Province
Å koda Motorsport drivers