64 year old Finnish rally driver Pentti Airikkala died yesterday (30 Sept) in Britain after a long illness. Although an active rally driver for nearly a quarter century on a private and professional basis, he finally achieved his ultimate goal, winning a world championship rally, the RAC Rally in 1989. That victory cemented his credentials as a top line driver and set him on a successful business course running a specialist rally driving school, in which he advocated left foot braking techniques.

Airikkala’s victory on the 1989 RAC Rally in an official Mitsubishi Galant VR4 was an extraordinary story. He had been driving a Group N Galant in British champions hip rallies that year but the works Group A entries for the final round of the championship had been earmarked for Ari Vatanen and Mikael Ericsson. Then the services of Ericsson, who meanwhile had won the 1000 Lakes Rally for Mitsubishi were demanded by Lancia and the second Mitsu seat became vacant. Lancia later withdrew their entries for the British event but the Airikkala was already confirmed as the driver. Toyota cars led the event for 52 of the 55 stages, before finally their driver Carlos Sainz was delayed by a broken propshaft and so for the most important three stages, the 44 year old Airikkala was leading. It was the final time that a world championship rally had been run on secret routes. The following year Airikka la drove for the Ford works team and his professional career ended on the RAC Rally when he crashed and suffered an injury which limited the movement of a shoulder. Apart from one final appearance in 2003 on the RAC Rally, he did not compete in top level rallying again.

For one of Finland’s most important rally drivers, Airikkala’s list of successes was surprisingly small, but his influence extended well beyond his activities on rallies. He gave competition driving technique tuition to an incredible number of drivers who became champions in their own right, including the world champion Richard Burns. Various Formula 1 and Nascar drivers took advantage of his training ideas He also helped sponsor and manage 17 year old Jari-Matti Latvala on Latvala’s first world championship appearance.

3mmm