European and Middle East Rally Championships. Prodrive early years In 1984, the Porsche Rothmans Rally Team won the Middle East Rally Championship and finished runners up in the European Championship in its first year of competition. Rapid expansion of his new Prodrive company led to a move to a new facility at Banbury, Oxfordshire in 1986. The same year, Richards' team ran a privately entered MG Metro 6R4 in the British and Irish rally championships, alongside the Porsche programme. The following year saw Prodrive begin a six-year relationship with BMW in both rallying and touring car racing. His BMW team won three consecutive British Touring Car Championships (BTCC) in 1988, 1989, and 1990, while the BMW rally teams dominated tarmac rallying across Europe winning the Belgian and French series with the Group A BMW M3 rally car. A pivotal meeting with Fuji Heavy Industries at the Safari Rally in 1989, led to the creation of the Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT). Subaru World Rally Team Under Richards' direction the team embarked on an ambitious programme, initially in the British, and subsequently the Asia-Pacific and World Rally Championships (WRC). It was Richards who, in 1990, saw the raw talent of young driver Colin McRae, and later Richard Burns and Petter Solberg. He personally oversaw the development of their early careers, leading to two British titles for Subaru and McRae in 1991 and 1992, and a further title for Burns in 1993. Drivers such as Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen, Possum Bourne, Markku Alen, Ari Vatanen and Tommi Mäkinen all competed for the team. The team's highlight came in 1995 when the Subaru World Rally Team and Colin McRae achieved the double of the Drivers' and Manufacturers' World Rally titles. Under Richards' direction, the team went on to win two further Manufacturers' titles, in 1996 and 1997. Richard Burns and Petter Solberg won further Drivers' titles in 2001 and 2003, respectively. At the end of 2008, Subaru decided to withdraw from the World Rally Championship after 18 years, ending one of the longest and most successful partnerships in the sport. Prodrive circuit racing In 1987 Prodrive entered into what was to become a long-standing partnership with BMW in the British Touring Car Championship. They took the Class B title three times, from 1988 to 1990, winning outright in 1988 with Frank Sytner. BMW UK ended the partnership with Prodrive at the end of