Hannu Mikkola, who died this week, was one of the original 'Flying Finns'. He was already a famous driver when the World Rally Championship began in 1973 having started out, as so many Finns of the time did, thrashing a Volvo PV544 through the trees of his home country, but he had gained worldwide fame by winning the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally and the 1972 East African Safari in Ford Escorts.
Those of us in Britain who remember him in the late seventies in the Mark Two Escort often forget that in between he had quite a vagabond career. He drove Peugeots in Africa in 1973 and 1974, he was part of the Fiat Works team for the first half of 1975 and then drove Toyotas for the next two and a half years. He had a lot of success during this period too. In 1975 he came second to Munari's Stratos on the Monte Carlo in a Fiat 124 Abarth, before winning in Morocco in a Peugeot 504 and giving the Group 4 Toyota Corolla its one and only win on the 1000 Lakes. There was no World Championship for Drivers then, but if you retrospectively use the original points system, he would have won it.
British fans though mainly remember him for his performances on the cold, wet and often snowy RAC Rally. In 1977 he drove a Toyota Celica and gave the all-conquering Ford Escort a run for its money with an impressive second place. The next year he was in an Escort himself, the iconic blue Eaton Yale car. He was expected to follow Bjorn Waldegard home again, but instead Mikkola proved to be the master, and once the 'Micky Mouse' stages were over he overhauled Alen's Stratos and won by five minutes, which also gave him the 1978 British Open Rally Championship.
The next year was the first year of the Driver's Championship and Ford put in an all out effort. It was soon clear that the Ford drivers were mainly competing against each other. Mikkola and Waldegarde had an epic tussle on the special stages in their Escorts, before switching to Mercedes 450s for the African rounds. Mikkola won in Portugal, New Zealand and Great Britain, but two wins and a string of second places put Waldegard ahead on points. It was all to play for in the final round on the Ivory Coast but, although Mikkola's Mercedes won the event, Waldegard's second place was enough to make him champion.
Ford's sabbatical to develop a new car left Mikkola without a full works drive. He continued to use the Mercedes in Africa and had an Escort drive for David Richards in Europe. Had he not had international commitments he would probably have won the British Open Rally Championship that year. However, his main achievement in 1980 was in helping to make the Audi Quattro a rally winner.
Mikkola's signing for the German team had caused some mirth amongst his fellow drivers. Audi were known for big, heavy, underpowered saloons. Even those who had heard of their four wheel drive project regarded it as a novelty act, unlikely to be any more competitive than the Land Rovers that appeared on some British rounds. Little did the sceptics know that Mikkola was helping to usher in a new era of rallying.
Mikkola was back in the blue Escort as he tried to complete his RAC hat trick, but he was to discover that whilst Ford had been absent from top level rallying, the opposition had caught up. He blamed a minor off on the different driving style he'd had to learn for the Audi, but in the end the decisive factor was tires. Mikkola's Dunlops were no match for Henri Toivonen's Michelins, and the Ford came second, breaking up what would otherwise have been a Talbot one-two-three.
In 1980 Mikkola had run the Quattro as the course car on the French Mille Pistes rally and had put in times that were comfortably faster than the actual winner. On the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally the car had its WRC debut. After six stages Mikkola was six minutes ahead, having overtaken previous winner Jean Pierre Nicholas's Porsche on one snowy stage. The car proved less devastating on the tarmac, and ended up hitting a bridge, but its potential was clear. Mikkola gave the Quattro its maiden win on the very next rally in Sweden, but mechanical failure, a fire and an exclusion marred the rest of the car's debut season. The season ended though with another win for Mikkola on the RAC.
Audi had a full-on assault on the championship in 1982, but a poor start to the season meant that Mikkola ended up playing a supporting role to teammate Michelle Mouton as she vied with Opel's Walter Rohrl for the Drivers title. Mouton lost, but Audi comfortably won the Makes cup and Mikkola again won the RAC. The next season was the start of Group B rallying and Mikkola was Audi's star driver as they took on Lancia in one of the all-time great WRC duels. The Italians beat the Germans to the Makes championship, but Mikkola finally won a much deserved World Championship for Drivers. On the 1983 RAC Rally Mikkola was again in with a chance of a hat trick. However, on the Knowsley Safari Park 'Mickey Mouse' stage a tree stump took out a front wheel and Mikkola ended up completing the stage with co-driver Arne Hertz sat on the book. Victory went instead to teammate Stig Blomqvist, but Mikkola still finished second.
Blomqvist was Audi's lead driver for the 1984 season, although Mikkola still won in Portugal. By the end of the year though it was clear that the Quattro had finally met its match, in the form of the white Peugeot 205T16. 1985 was billed as a battle royal between the nimble Peugeot and the more experienced Audi team, but in the end the French blew the Germans out of the water and Mikkola didn't win a World rally for the first time since 1977. By 1986 Lancia, Ford and British Leyland had all joined the Group B battle. The Quattro had shrunk, grown wings and had so much power it literally spat flames, but was struggling to complete with better balanced machinery. After the tragedy of Portugal Audi dropped out of world rallying.
Mikkola had continued to enter British Open rounds during his Quattro years. Only his international commitments, and the car's poor tarmac performance, stopped him winning a second title. In 1986 he won the National Breakdown Rally, which was what the De Lacy Motor Club's event was calling itself that year, and Welsh International before Audi pulled the plug, giving the Quattro it's last significant rally win in the process.
With Group B gone there top drivers faced a struggle to find competitive drives. Mikkola ended up with Mazda, whose 323 lacked the power of the Lancia Deltas, and which could only win in conditions where traction was more important than power. The snowy 1988 RAC Rally was one such rally, and after carnage at the top of the field Mikkola found himself leading the rally. With only five stages to go he came over a crest in Langdale, was blinded by the low sun, and left the road. As he tried to rejoin the rally the Mazda's transmission snapped and it was all over. Mikkola continued with the Japanese team for three more seasons but was unable to add to his tally of eighteen world championship wins.
The Lombard RAC Rally became the Network Q and eventually got stuck in Wales. But in 2004 the De Lacy Motor Club decided to revise the rally's old format for two wheel drive cars and called it the Roger Albert Clark Rally. As well as old cars, they managed to bring some old drivers, and Mikkola joined old rivals Stig Blomqvist and Malcolm Wilson for a trash through the Yorkshire, Cumbrian and Northumbrian stages in Ford Escort RSs. For us more mature fans it was a chance to enjoy the sight, sound and smells of the old Group 4 days. Mikkola won five stages and came fifth, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that the master was back, in an Escort, and in Kielder Forest. For British rally fans this was rallying heaven. We miss those days and we will miss Hannu Mikkola.
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