Obituary: Hannu Mikkola

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. 

Obituary: Russell Brookes

Russell Brookes, who died on 30 October 2019, was one of the great characters of British rallying.

His career was a curious one, spanning as it does the years in which British drivers failed to make much of an impression on the world rallying scene, but also the greatest years of the British Open Rally Championship, when the best drivers in the world came to the British Isles to take on the home drivers, and often as not lost to them. Outside of Britain Brookes' best result on a World Rally Championship event was sixth. On home ground though he took on, and at some stage beat, Bjorn Waldegard, Walter Rohrl, Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist, Timo Salonen and Colin McRae, all future World Rally Champions.

Between Roger Clark's victory on the 1976 RAC Rally, to Colin McRae's on the 1993 Rally of New

Zealand, no British driver won a round of the World Rally Championship. These were British rallying's wilderness years, when our national series was a ghetto which drivers were unable to escape from. These were also, pretty much, the years of Brookes's rallying career. In his first full season in the British national rally championship he was dicing with Clark, and in his last with McRae.

Brookes joined British rallying top division in 1976 in his distinctively liveried Andrews Heat for
Hire Ford Escort RS1800. As a young driver who was quick, a bit too quick, and he had to crash his way down to a pace in which he could finish a rally However, he immediately made his mark as by being quicker than the great Roger Clark.

The next year he won the British Rally Championship, after a tremendous dice around the stages with Penti Airikkala in the Vauxhall Chevette RS2300. He also got a drive on a World rally, with Ford sending him to Corsica in an attempt to beat Fiat to the world title. He retired with mechanical failure, but managed third on that years Lombard RAC Rally, gaining a prestigious A seeding for the 1978 season.

The next year the British National Rally Championship became the British Open, and the rest of the world started to take notice. As well as Penti, the British resident Finn, Finnish aces Hannu Mikkola, Markku Alen and Kyosti Hamalainen came over to take on the British boys. They did not have an easy time of it. Brookes won the Circuit of Ireland and then, on the Argyll based Burmah International, he ended up on exactly the same overall time as Hannu Mikkola. This was the first international rally ever to end in a tie, and as cars are now timed to the thousandth of the second this is a record that will stand forever. On that year's RAC Rally Brookes came third to retain his A seeding and complete a Ford hat trick.

The 1979 Open was just as competitive. Brookes won the Scottish, after a long duel with one Jimmy McRae. Airikkale won the series, but the Brookes and McRae battle was the shape of things to come. On the RAC Rally that year Brookes did one better than the previous year and he finished second, with four future World Champions behind him (five if you could Markku Alen). His career was on a high and the future looked bright. Surely a drive at World level beckoned?

Alas, it was not so. Ford retired from rallying to develop a replacement for the venerable Escort RS.
They only expected to be gone for a year or so, but ended up being out of top level competition for nearly six years. All the Ford drivers had to find other teams, and Brookes chose Talbot, whose Sunbeam Lotus had shown promise at the hands of Tony Pond in the previous year's Open, It was a bad choice.

Talbot would win the 1981 World Rally Championship with Henri Toivonen and Guy Frequeline, but Brookes was left with nly an underpowered car and British Open events. Fourth place on the 1980 RAC was his only memorable result with the car.

For the 1982 season Brookes signed up for Vauxhall. The HS had become the HSR, and one of the best two wheel drive rally cars ever, at least on British events.

Unfortunately for Brookes this was the year the Audi Quattro arrived on the British Open. Every British Open rally entered by a Works Quattro was won by a Quattro, leaving Brookes and the rest of the two wheel drive contingent fighting for second place. The tarmac rounds were another matter though, and here Brookes and McRae resumed their old rivalry. In 1982 McRae had the edge and won the Open, but in 1983 Brookes beat the Scot and wold have won the series too, had not the following year's World Champion, Stig Blomqvist, beaten them both in his Quattro.

For 1984 the Chevette finally followed the Escort into retirement and Brookes embrace Group B with the Open Manta 400, still sporting Andrews sponsorship. He was now McRae's team mate and the two of them had another epic dice. Although it never won a World event, the Manta 400 was the perfect car for the British Open's almost equal mix of tarmac and gravel. The Quattros won in the forests, but in the championship it was McRae from Brookes.

The following year though Brookes would have his revenge. He was runner up to Mikkola's Quattro in Yorkshire and then had to gift a win in Ireland to McRae's on team orders. He retired in Wales and was third in Scotland before blasting the Opel to a win on the tarmac of Ulster. This put him level on points with McRae going into the last round on the Isle of Man. It was an epic duel. Malcolm Wilson blew his chances by crashing his Quattro, so it came down to a straight fight between the old rivals in their Mantas. This time the rally, and the championship, went to Brookes.

Brookes clearly wasn't going to quit on a car that had given him his second championship. However, in 1986 Group B finally arrived on mass. In a packed field of Metro 6R4s and Quattros, a Peugeot 205T16, a Sport Quattro and an RS200 (which won) the old two wheel drive car was completely out gunned. For 1987 though everything changed. Group B was banned from European and World rallies, and four wheel drive Group B cars from everything. The result was a confusing series in which Brookes drove is Manta 400 on rounds that were only part of the British Open, but had to switch to a Group A Opel Kadett GSi for rounds that were also in the European Championship. Brookes won again in Ireland in the Manta, but there was no way the little Kadett could take on the Ford Sierra Cosworth, which now dominated Group A, and Brookes had a disappointing season. The following year though Brookes was able to transfer his Andrews Heat for Hire colours onto his own Cossie. He wasn't in time to enter the full season, but it was a useful learning experience and he was well placed to battle McRae again for the title in 1989.

Time though was marching on, and Brookes once again found himself with old technology. The Toyota Celica GT4 had arrived, combining four wheel drive traction, with turbo charged power and, thanks to its viscous coupling differential, two wheel drive handling. In the hands of Dai Lewellin it dominated the gravel rounds, but was no pushover on the tarmac either. There were also new drivers on the scene. One Gwyndaff Evans managed to beat Brookes on the Ulster, after the English driver's turbo cut out on the last stage, and there was a new McRae on the scene too. Colin had written off his Group N Cossie by crashing it into the rock I was standing on in Wales (that is completely true, my friend Simon still has the car's whale-tail), but for the last round of the championship he was promoted to Group A and proved faster than his dad.

This was the gravel Audi Sport Rally in mid Wales, the final round of the series. Brookes had had a solid season. The only time he'd failed to make the podium was in Scotland, when a last stage engine problem dropped him to fourth. On the Manx he'd been trailing Mark Lovell in the other Andrews Sierra, but team orders gave him the win. Brookes was slightly ahead of Llewellin on points, but the Toyota driver was favorite to win the gravel event. Brookes drove like he hadn't driven since his Escort days, pushing the big Sierra to the limit. He matched Llewelling for pace, but it couldn't last. He went off and lost four minutes, handing Llewellin the rally and the championship. The Welshman afterwards quipped "I guess there weren't many Welsh spectators to push Russell back when he went off."

In 1990 it all started to change. Andrews Heat for Hire ended their sponsorship and Brookes had to
scrabble around to get the money together to enter the series. Llewellin won again and Brookes had a disappointing year.

1991 though finally saw Brookes in four wheel drive machinery. He had an oversized Ford Sapphire Cosworth whilst Colin McRae had an oversized Subaru Legacy. The result was another epic Brookes/McRae duel around the British Isles. Brookes beat McRae in Wales when the Scot stuffed the Legacy into the scenery, but the other rallies were a lot closer. In Scotland Colin took the lead, but Brookes set five fastest stage times in a row and was hauling him in until a driveshaft broke. Brookes finished second to Colin, but did manage to stay ahead of old rival Jimmy. Brookes sat out the Circuit of Ireland, was ill during the Ulster, and couldn't match the pace of the future World Champion in Wales or on the Isle of Man. This meant McRae entered the last round only needing a points finish. Brookes finished second but McRae's third was enough to make him British Champion. At the end of the season Brookes retired.

In retirement Brookes became a star of the British historic rally scene. Like many who'd only seen him flashing through the trees, this was finally a time to meet him and hear him speak. Always charming, he had enough stories to entertain at any event he attended.

His adventures in the Paris-Dakar rally being a staple of such events. In the days when the event was still held in the African desert he drove a service barge one year. Sleeping whilst the driver was at the wheel, he was woken by the on-board mechanic. His hard drinking and chain smoking co-driver had suffered a heart attack at the wheel, his foot still jammed on the accelerator. After bringing the vehicle to a stop Brookes revived the man with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, not a pleasant experience, but an imminent sand storm meant the medical helicopter couldn't fly, so they had to drive him to the next bivouac. This they did with the unconscious co-driver strapped into his seat, a drive shaft stuck down the back of his overalls and taped to his helmet to stop his head flopping around.

It's sad that we won't be hearing any of these stories again. I last saw Brookes at the 2019 Race retro at Stoneleigh Park. He was racing around on his mobility scooter whilst there were no less than three replica Andrews Heat for Hire cars on display, which I think this shows the impact he had on British rallying. He will be missed.

Best Five Drivers Never To Win The WRC

I guess overall the World Rally Championship Drivers title has been shared reasonably fairly.

Okay, so it's been more than a decade since the WCR was won by someone who wasn't called Sebastian, but at least Solberg and Gronholm got a go before Monsieur Loeb got going, and there's time yet for Latvala and Hirvonen.

However if you look back through the whole history of the WRC you see a few drivers who should have had a title but didn't. Here's my top five unlucky drivers.

1. Jean-Luc Therier

Jean-Luc Therier, Renault Alpine A110 Corsica, 1973

Where the WRC launched in 1973 one team dominated, Alpine Renault.

Alpine was a tiny French outfit that was taken over by national giant Renault that year. They'd been rallying their little A110 for over a decade by this time and with Renault's money they were now able to take on the world with their pocket rocket.

The pilots of these little missiles were known as The Blue Riders. Jean-Claude Andruet, Jean Pierre Nicholas, and Bernard Darniche would continue to win rallies for the rest of the decade whilst Ove Anderson went on to manage Toyota, but the fastest of all them was Jean-Luc Therier.

In 1973 he won in Portugal, Greece and San Remo and finished best non-Saab in Sweden. He also
managed two thirds, a fifth and a seventh. In Poland he was one of many drivers disqualified after the organisers decided to hide the Passage Controls, and on the RAC the little car expired.

Unfortunately for Therier there was no award for drivers until 1979. Had there been a Championship for Drivers in '73 he'd have won it by a country mile.

Renault Alpine scaled down their involvement in rallying after 1973. Therier was never to win with an Alpine again, but he did give the Renault 17 Gordini, which was a sort of Gallic Ford Capri, it's only win in America in 1974. He then moved to Ove Anderson's Toyota where he retired from every world event he entered.

Then in 1980 Porsche homologated a lightweight version of the venerable 911 and Therier drove it on the 1980 Tour de Corse.

Jean-Luc Therier, Porsche 911SC, Tour de Corse 1980

He was up against Jean Ragnotti in the little Renault 5 Turbo and former Blue Rider Anduet in a Fiat France 131 Abarth, but despite being down in eighth at one point Therier brought the Porsche home first. 

He nearly did it again on his next outing in Monte Carlo. Mikkola's Quattro set the early pace,  but when an accidnt made the four wheel drive car a three wheeler Therier inherited the lead. He held it until the last night when he went wide on a corner, mounted a bank and broke the transmission.

There would be one more podium in his career, but no more chances for victory.

2. Sandro Munari

Sandro Munari, Lancia Stratos, Monte Carlo 1975

The team that knocked Renault Alpine off their perch was Lancia and the car they did it with was the Stratos. The car was built around one driver, Sandro Munari. Quite literally built around him as anyone with longer legs and shorter arms, which was just about everyone, had trouble even fitting into it.

Munari had come third on the 1974 Safari in an old Fulvia, but when the Stratos was homologated in October he managed to win back to back rallies in San Remo and Canada and come third in Great Britain. Had there been a drivers title to play for it would have been his.

The next year he could have done it again, but

Sandro Munari, Lancia Stratos, RAC 1976

Turin politics saw him sitting out several rounds. By 1976 he had a rival in the team in the form of Swede Bjorn Waldegarde, but wins in Monte Carlo, Portugal and on the Tour de Corse would have given him another title.

Come 1977 though and Lancia had to give way to Fiat. Munari would the FIA Cup, a predecessor or the WRC for Drivers, but was limited to just five actual WRC appearances. One of these though was the Monte Carlo which he won to give him a Hat Trick.

In 1978 he only finished one rally, and that was in a Fiat 131 Abarth. Apart from a few cameos in Africa that was it for Il Drago.

3. Markku Alen

On the eve of the first WRC for Drivers in 1979 who would we have said were the best rally drivers in the world? Hannu Mikkola, Bjorn Waldegarde and Ari Vatanen of Ford, Markku Alen and Walter Rohrl of Fiat and maybe Stig Blomqvist and Timo Salonen who, although not winning rallies, had put in decent performances in uncompetitive cars.

Over the next seven years each of those drivers would win a world title except one; Markku Alen.

How this could be is a bit of a mystery. Partly it was because in 1978, when he was undoubtedly the driver of the year, there was still only a Makes title, partly it was because when he had another crack at the title in 1980 team mate Rohrl beat him fair and square and partly it was because when the Italians next had shot at the title the Lancia 037 was so out-gunned by Audi it took a team performance to win.

He had a theoretical chance of the title on the 1983 RAC, but Lancia had spent so much Lira on winning the Makes they didn't want to waste any more hopelessly chasing Quattros through muddy British forests.

Then in 1986 Alen finally had a great car and great chance.  When he beat Juha Kankkunen to win Olympus Rally at the end of the season he was indeed crowned World Champion, only to lose the title to the Finn 21 days later when the FIA took away his Sanremo win.

Walter Rohrl thought Alen was the greatest driver of his generation. He was a Flying Finn who became more Italian than the Italians. Calm behind the wheel, he was a bag of nerves at service points. half the vocabulary of the WRC, from 'maximum attack' to 'Mickey Mouse' stages, is thanks to him.

He continued to win into the Group A era and, after he eventually left Turin, he gave the Subaru Legacy it's first podium, but 1986 was his last challenge for the WRC.

Alen is the Stirling Moss of rallying, the greatest driver never to become World Champion.

4. Henri Toivonen

But perhaps the driver who really should have lifted the 1986 Drivers trophy was neither Alen, nor Kankkunen, but Henri Toivonen.

The 22 year old Finn would have been on nobodies list of great drivers in 1978. In fact he wouldn't have made many lists two years later when he started the 1980 RAC Rally in his Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. But then he went and won the event, beating Mikkola and the previously invincible Ford Escort RS into second place, and becoming the youngest driver ever to win a WRC event.

Toivonen continued to drive for Talbot and then switched to Opel. He led his first event for the Germans, but despite some solid performances never looked like winning anything in either and Ascona or a Manta. By 1984 he had largely dropped out of top flight competition and was driving a Porsche in the European Championship. However by the end of the year he had signed for Lancia.


A back injury following an accident at the start of 1985 kept him out of rallying for six months but
he stuck with the team despite the 037 being too long in the tooth to be competitive.

The reward was a drive in the fearsome 038 on its début in the 1985 RAC Rally. Up against a pack of Group B monster from Audi, Peugeot and Austin Rover, as well as team mate Alen, he drove the beast to victory.

Toivonen continued his winning streak on 1986 Monte Carlo Rally. He then retired in Sweden and was withdrawn in Portugal along with all the other top drivers after a fatal accident.

He started the 1986 Tour de Corse then as the fastest rally driver in the world. On tarmac the car's boost was turned up to give the 038 over 500bhp. To reduce weight all under body protection was removed and to improve the balance the crew sat on the petrol tanks. At the end of the seventeenth stage he was leading the rally.

He started the next stage complaining of the strain of keeping up the pace in such a powerfula nd twitchy machine. He never reached the finish. The car had left the road at a sharp left, out of sight of spectators and marshals, and exploded. All that was left when fire crews arrived was a burnt out shell and pieces scattered over the hillside like the aftermath of a plane crash.

The accident didn't just kill Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresto, it killed Group B as well. Alen would keep up the fight against Peugeot for the rest of the season, but I suspect there was only one man who could have beaten Kankkunen in a Lancia, and that was Toivonen.

5. Francois Delecoeur

28 year old Francois Delecoeur was plucked from obscurity by Ford in 1991 to drive their palatial Sierra Sapphire 4x4. On his first event, the Monte Carlo, he looked set to reward them with a win, then his suspension collapsed. Over the next two seasons he pedalled the over-sized vehicle to four podiums.

Then in 1993 Ford unveiled the nearest thing the Group A era had to 'homologation special', the Escort Cosworth. On the Monte Delecoeur once again surged into the lead then on the final night Didier Auriel went mad and overturned a three minute lead.

He gave the new Cossie its first win on the next rally in Portugal. He also won in Corsica and Spain and only lost out in New Zealand thanks to another awesome drive, this time by our own Colin McRae.

Delecoeur then started the 1994 season as favourite to lift the crown.

He started well by finally winning the Monte Carlo then retired in Portugal whilst leading. The Driver's trophy looked like it might have his name on it.

Then he went for a spin in a friend's Ferrari F40, and met an amateur rally driver coming the other way. The car was destroyed and Delecoeur suffered injuries that kept him out of most of the rest of the season. He was fully fit again in 1995, but by this time the Escort had lost its competitive edge and didn't win a single round.

Delecoeur switched to Peugeot and helped to develop the world conquering Peugeot 206, but he never again had a shot at the title.

Obituary: Björn Waldegård

Björn Waldegård, who died yesterday, was rallying's first World Champion, and probably the most complete driver ever to lift the crown.

During his long career Waldegård won on tarmac and gravel, in Europe and in Africa, in conventional and unconventional cars and with two wheel drive and four.

These days, with the format of all international rallies being very similar, it's not unusual for a top driver to win everything. But in the past the difference between a short pace note event like the Swedish, a African endurance event like the Safari and blind rally like RAC was huge and Waldegård was unique in winning them all.

The Porsche Years

He first exploded onto the rallying scene when, aged only 25, he won the most famous rally in the world in a Porsche 911. Inexperience, and a language barrier, nearly cost the reigning Swedish Rally Champion his first Monte Carlo victory as he misunderstood a request by the mechanics for  "no brakes" and pressed the pedal, ejecting his calipers onto the ground. Fortunately the Stuttgart mechanics were able to repair the car and he led home a Porsche 1-2. Just to prove it wasn't a one-off he won again in 1970.

Unfortunately Porsche decided not to make the 911 the world beater it could have been, and instead left the field open for Lancia to make the Stratos the world's first supercar. Waldegård took to rallycross, but with the Lancia team built around Italian ace Sandro Munari, a driver who was less comfortable on the tricky northern European rounds, they signed up Waldegård as back up.

The Lancia Years

Before...

Driving the best car in the world, Waldegård had no problem winning his home round in 1975, but then rather unexpectedly he won in Italy as well.

On the RAC Waldegård was flying. Literally. After 16 stages he had set 6 fastest times and was comfortably in the lead before he then flew too high on a yump in Pickering and broke a drive shaft. Mechanics changed it on the stage (that was legal then) but at a cost of one hour of delay and all of his rear bodywork.

.... and after.

Waldegård continued in the event and continued to set fastest times, but he'd been OTL and was also running without brake lights, rear lights and a rear number plate.

He should have got his revenge the next year, but it all went wrong in San Remo. Waldegard had ended the penultimate stage four seconds ahead of Munari. As it wouldn't do for the top Italian rally driver to be beaten on home soil Waldegard was instructed to let his team mate win. Waldegard came to the start of the last stage and was waved away. The car didn't move for four seconds. With everything square he then blasted off at full speed to win the stage, by four seconds.

Lancia were not impressed and sacked him on the spot. Ford signed him immediately and started cobbling a car together for the RAC. He finished third, just ahead of Munari, and told the press he'd have won the event in a Stratos.

The Ford Years

 

Acropolis 1977

Waldegård's years with Ford were to be the most successful of his career.

In 1977 the blue oval made a determined effort to win the World Championship for Makes and, although the Ford "lawnmower" was beaten by the Fiat steamroller, the best driver of the year was undoubtedly Waldegård. He won the three toughest rallies of the year; the Safari, the Acropolis and the RAC. Had there been a World Championship for Drivers then he'd have won it.

Ford mostly sat out the 1978 season, but Waldegård still managed a win on the Swedish and second to team mate Hannu Mikkola on the RAC. For '79 Ford would be going all out for the championship, and with Fiat outgunned Waldegård and Mikkola who would be dicing to see who became the first ever World Champion driver.

Monte Carlo 1979

Waldegård's year didn't start well with French spectators placing rocks on the road in front of him to give victory to local hero Bernard Darniche's Stratos. However at least he did better than Hannu, who was nicked by the local plod whilst leading and given a five minute penalty.

Waldegård was second again in Sweden, beaten by Blomqvists Saab 99 Turbo, and again in Portugal where Mikkola snuck a win. The season was developing into a tortoise and hare contest between the two Scandanavians, and as an added twist both were contracted to Mercedes for the African events. In the end Mikkola also won in New Zealand, Quebec and Great Britain, but it was Waldegård who became the inaugural World Champion thanks to wins in Greece and Canada and consistent finishes over the rest of the season.

The Toyota Years

A disastrous ninth on the RAC marked the end of the road for Waldegård and the old rear wheel drive Escort, and after a disappointing year with Fiat and Mercedes, he signed for Toyota, the team with which he was to spend the next twelve years.

He started off well by briefly getting the previously off-the-pace Celica into the lead on the 1980 RAC then, after an unremarkable 1981 season, he brought the new style car home first on the 1982 New Zealand rally. It was a surprising win, for in the era of the Audi Quattro and the Lancia Rally the old normally aspirated, rear wheel drive car seemed antiquated.

1982 also saw him back in a Stratos, for a one-off drive in the Esgair Dafydd TV Rallysprint.

Ivory Coast 1983

Toyota then homologated the Group B turbo version of the Celica which, although off the pace in Europe, made Africa its own. Waldegård won in the Ivory Coast with it in 1983, on the Safari in 1984 and then won both rallies in 1986.

That car died with Group B and it was a while before Toyota had a car that was both fast enough, and tough enough, to win in Africa again. When they did, with the Celica GT-4 in 1990, it was again Waldegård who was at the wheel. By this time he was 46 and the oldest driver to win a World Rally, a record he is likely to keep a while yet. He retired from front line motorsport in 1992 when he broke his arm in an accident, once again in Africa, and once again in a Toyota.

Waldegård continued to drive though and I last saw him in action at the 2009 Chatsworth Rally Show, celebrating 30 years since his World Title, and putting a Mark Two Escort through its paces. It was 33 years since I'd first seen him in on New Brighton sea front in his first Ford drive.

A true legend, he will be missed.

Obituary: Anders Kullang

It was with great sadness that the world of rallying learnt of the death of the Swedish rally star Anders Kullang, ironically on the eve of this years running of the event he won 32 years ago.

For British rally fans, Kullang is mainly remembered for one car, the Opel Ascona 400, and the one season he used it to compete in our own Open Rally Championship.

The Ascona 400 was an unsophisticated and utilitarian vehicle even in 1980, but Kullang drove it to victory in its second ever world event.

He then brought it here for the Mintex rally, the opening event on the Open, whilst the leader in the World Rally Championship. Yes, those were the days the British series really mattered.

It was a year dominated by two Escort driver; Mikkola and Vatanen, with Jimmy McRae, Russell Brookes, Henry Toivonen Stig Blomqvist and Roger Clark providing a stellar supporting cast.

Kulland, who had previously campaigned the heavy old Ascona and uncompetitive Group 4 Kadett here to little avail, had a respectable but unspectacular series, which made what happened on the RAC all the more surprising.

One of the Escort stars was expected to give the car its ninth straight win, especially as Fiat/Lancia were sitting the event out, having blown their budget getting the aged 131 to win them a brace of World Championships.

Instead it was Kullang who put the Ascona into the lead, with fellow Swede Bjorn Waldegarde snapping at his heals in a Toyota Celica.

The duos Michelin tires seemed to have the edge on Ford's Dunlops and Kullang led through Kielder and Scotland and into Cumbria, where he received an award from the Major of Carlisle during Windermere service halt.

Then those Michelin's let him down and he punctured three times in Grizedale, handing the lead to his fellow Swede who passed it to Henri Toivonen when his Toyota's engine expired. He lost seventeen minutes in Cumbria, and finished sixteen and a half minutes behind the Finn.

Kullang eventually fought his way back to fifth. The next year he had a respectable finish on the Monte and led for a while on the Safari, but Opel's sponsors ran out of cash and he had to leave the team. The dawn of the Group B era saw him piloting an off-the-pace two wheel drive Mitsubishi Lancer.

And that's the way rallying often goes and Kullang remained one of World Rallying's one hit wonders. If it hadn't been for those punctures, or if Publimmo had had a bit more money, he could have added to this tally.

In later life he ran a rally school and Colin McRae and Sebatian Loeb both came to learn about Swedish rallying - although if subsequent performances are anything to go by McRae would appear to be the only one who actually learnt anything.

It almost goes without saying that nobody appears to have had a bad word to say about Kullang. That's usually the case with rally men, but it's worth repeating.

So those are my happy memories of Kullang. Thanks a lot Anders, you'll be missed.

Obituary: Pentti Airikkala

Pentti Airikkala, who died last month after battling illness for several years, was one of the most sideways of the Flying Finns and the one who loved this country the most.

He burst onto the scene in 1976, tackling the British Rally Championship in an outdated Mark One Escort and serious discomforting old stagers like Roger Clark. He was able to upgrade to an RS1800 for the RAC Rally and put in a barnstorming performance to lead the rally before mechanical problems and eventual disqualification.

He then signed for Vauxhall to pilot their new 'Escort beater' the Chevette 2300HS. The project never really got going properly and despite some good performances and his only success was to be crowned the 1979 British Open Rally Champion. 1980 promised the improved Chevette HSR and a shot at the European crown, but unfortunately the money ran out and he only ended up competing in Scandinavian rounds.

The rest of the 1980s saw Airikkala competing in various cars in Britain, Sweden and Finland. However as his star sank the drives became harder to find and by 1988 he was left to fund his own way in the British Open in a Mitsubishi Starion Turbo. Despite not having the most competitive car he almost won the series.

Back to being a driver the team managers wanted to know again he was given a drive in a Group N Mitsubishi Galant for the next Open. Up against a young Colin McRae in a Cossie he nursed the heavy car to the Group N title- being careful not to use the brakes in the last mile so he could be sure of stopping at the end of the stage.


His reward for this was a full blown Group A Galant for the RAC, the rally he'd been leading 13 years earlier. Lancia, who'd dominated the season, were saving their Lira and staying away so the Japanese teams, Mitsubishi and Toyota, who were the favourites.

Despite being second fiddle to Ari Vatanen, it was Airikkala who was clearly the quicker driver. The Toyota Celica GT-fours made the early running, but once Dai Llewellin and Yuha Kankunen had hit trouble Airikkala found himself second to their new Spanish hot shot Carlos Sainz.

Both drivers were looking for their first WRC win and the last day began with the young Spaniard over a minute ahead of the old stager. Airikkala had his suspension lowered for the fast Yorkshire stages and started reeling the Toyota in, but not fast enough. I was spectating in the Woodyard at Dalby when the drama happened. On the first pass through Airikkala looked like he'd taken a couple of seconds out of Sainz's lead, but not enough to win. The second time the cars came through though something was clearly wrong with the Toyota. A half shaft had broken and it was Airikkala who took the win, at 44 years old the third oldest driver to win a WRC round.

His last season was spent thrashing the ungainly Sapphire Cosworth 4X4 on a few international rallies. He then retired to run his well respected driving school, whose pupils included the World Champions Colin McRae and Richard Burns.