Keith McCleary, was watching the Jim Clark event in the Borders when one of the cars left the road at 100mph and smashed into him and several other spectators.
The 63-year-old spent four months in hospital, including nine days in a coma, recovering from a smashed pelvis, shoulder, ribs and a punctured lung following the June 2014 incident.
He was warned he may never drive again but has overcome the odds to achieve his dream.
“I feel I’ve made it,” said the dad of three, who was a member of the South of Scotland Car Club and won the Galloway Hills Rally in 1972 with pal Ivor Clark.
“It’s been a huge ordeal and painful but I’ve turned the corner, so to speak.
“I didn’t know how close I was to dying after the horrendous accident. My family were told to expect the worst.
“Every part of my body ached badly and I’m still suffering at times. But the thought of never being able to drive again was dreadful. It was too much to bear at times.
“Getting behind the wheel and starting the engine again was just brilliant.
“I couldn’t face becoming dependent on family and friends driving me about.”
Keith knew nothing of the accident until he woke up from his coma in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
“When I came to I asked my son Grant where I was,” he recalled. “The last thing I remembered was talking to his flatmate in field while watching for the cars to come round. The rest was a blank.
“Having done a bit of rally driving myself I was upset to find myself struggling to walk painfully to my car without the aid of crutches.
“But I was going to do whatever it took to drive again.
“Many of us take driving for granted but when you can’t you fairly miss it.
“The months recovering in the house were soulless, despite visits from my family and friends.”
His white Ford car lay in his driveway awaiting his return to the wheel.
Meanwhile, his dutiful family kept it clean with regular washing.
“I look at life in a different way now after all that’s happened to me,” Keith adds.
Despite nearing pension age, Keith is now dreaming of going back to work as an agricultural machinery engineer.
The crash he was involved in happened outside Eccles, near Coldstream, at around 2pm.
Four other fans were injured in what was the first of two devastating smashes at the event.
A second crash at Swinton two hours later killed three people and left another critically injured.
Iain Provan, 64, his partner Elizabeth Allan, 63, and 71-year-old John Stern died in that accident.
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I was hit by a 100mph rally car. A year on I’m still fighting to win my life back
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