ja lisää...
Timo Salonen:
Well, if you love these crazy characterful stories, here is another one. I said on page 1 in this thread:
"Now with more inside I regard Timo Salonen as maybe the man with the most raw talent, but always in the wrong car at the wrong time. Only exception was when Timo turned a surprise signing as Peugeots N°2 in the 205 T16 in 1985. He won the WRChampionship on this, his first chance and in that season won 4 successive WRC events, a record that was unbroken for 20years until Loeb came. But I say this also for a hysterical test driving story that circulated about Timo."
That Timo story that made me wonder about his raw talent is also connected to another crazy character about Timo Salonen: he was the biggest anti-sportsman the sport has ever seen. The driving talent story was this:
So Timo is rescued from uncompetitive, unreliable Nissans into the groupB supercar Peugeot 205 T16. He joins the team first time testing for Monte Carlo 1985. He drives the car to get a first impression. Timo comes back from these first few loops, shakes his head, grabs a mechanic... Mechanic hasn't got his feet properly tucked away as Timo accelerates off onto the test stage. Mechanic closes the door while Timo is already driving, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th gear, mechanic pale wondering what psycho he is sitting alongside, hastly fastens seat belts. Timo fiddles for a cigarette while car is 5th gear over bumps, left right opposite lock, airborn, hard landing, cigarette falls down. While car carries on sliding and flying in 5th gear Timo has his head down, searching for that cigarette, only one hand on the wheel, finds cigarette, lights it, still airborn, opposite lock action, only now Timo starts sorting his seat belts, fastens them, still one hand only on the steering wheel, and sliding and jumping but already nearing end of test stage. Timo inhales more of his cigarette and says "See what I mean, this car is utterly inprecise driving it on the limit!"
Haha, I love this story as proof of natural talent. If you thought Colin McRae looked bored driving a Focus on the limit, Timo Salonen actually was caught smoking a cigarette on a stage he won in the 205 T16 in Argentina 85!
Pentti Airikkala:
Pentti is a funny character, lovely to talk to, he comes up with the weirdest comparisons, he would be a good journalist! I.e. he told me in Finland 2003 about a certain jump "Tried it flat out and eyes like fried eggs!"
Another one of many occasions he made me laugh was when he tried a RWD Sierra Cosworth, then came out with a comment as honest as it was funny "The car feels very nervous, but maybe she is nervous because I am driving her!"
To his career He became British Champion driving a Vauxhall Chevette in the late 1970s. He also had a few WRC starts with this car. His first big result was coming 2nd on the 1000 Lakes FIN 1976 in a private Ford Escort. I also remember a story Walter Röhrl described Pentti as utterly crazy. It was Röhrls first WRChampionship winning year 1980, in New Zealand on one stage Pentti started a minute behind Röhrl, took a whole minute out of him as he caught him, overtook him and then crashed in front of Röhrls eyes!
Penttis career only got a twist to a more regular driver when he joined the Rothmans team for 1981. Hannu Mikkola moved to Audi after 1980, so for 1981 Ari Vatanen was Rothmans 1 driver and David Sutton decided on a mix of experience and youth, the 2nd car was shared between Pentti Airikkala and young Malcolm Wilson. Pentti only got to drive Sweden, Finland and RAC that year but 5th was his worst result!
In 1982 Pentti was then invited to the Mitusbishi works team. But Mitsubishi only had a limited program with an unproven new car, the RWD Lancer Turbo. Nevertheless Pentti finished 3rd and best 2WD in 1000 Lakes 1982. Then it was one-off drives, 1983 and 1984 he did only 1 WRC event all year, both time Finland, 1983 the mid engined Lancia Rally 037, not the best and easiest car for Finland, in 1984 the uncompetitive Nissan Silvia 240RS.
Then it became quiet completely around Pentti. Well he had a Vauxhall BRC program, meaning we saw him on the RAC a few times with a FWD non-turbo Vauxhall Astra GTE, a car that was hardly top10 material in the best hands.
So basically you could say in 1989 Pentti came back after a 7 years break. It was the RAC in the Mitsubishi Galant VR4, a car in its first season and a car that Ari Vatanen had a nightmare season with. And then comes Pentti and wins the RAC outright! Like after a 7years break old Pentti turns a WRC winner! What could have been had he had a drive all those years
He seemed to be a superb car developper too. He seemed to do well in unproven cars and I remember stories from several teams that Pentti helped them immensely with set ups and new ideas.
Which reminds me of the 1988 BRC season, which is equally as funny. Pentti had no drive, he saw that in 1987 several guys were doing well in the BRC with RWD Ford Sierra Cosworth. Pentti remembered Mitsubishi had a Starion Turbo for which they had no use any more. Mitsubishi found the car disappointing, but Pentti thought for BRC against RWD Sierras.... He approached Ralli Arts Andrew Cowan, who replied "Sure you can have it, I have no use for it, it is an utterly useless car". Pentti took it, tested it, changed the whole set up around.... Next there was a story of Andrew Cowan being on a business flight to his bosses in Japan, flight was long and boring, Cowan bought a newspaper and in here he found out Pentti had just won BRC round1 with his useless car! Cant remember round2, but he won round3 in the Starion too! That called Mitsubishi Japan onto the plan, all the sudden their hopeless old Starion -the car had its competition debut over 2 years earlier!- was winning material. But what happened next could today be described as the Toyota F1 syndrom. Too many highly qualified Japanese engineers that wanted to decorate themselves with this success. Wouldnt anyone be excited he suddenly got works support, financiel as well as in engineering They dictated new engineering ideas and new set ups on Pentti. And the more the Japanese fiddled with this car, the worse it got. Pentti said several times "Honestly, by the end of the season this car was completely undriveable and when the season was over it was a releave!" But he won 2 events with a car that Mitsubishi had long given up on, and it seemed the car only worked with Penttis own set up ideas! Well funny and respect to the guy me thinks!
Great stories CB. And Pentti is a terrific sorter of cars, no doubt about that. On this line, one of my fave Pentti stories (direct from the shark’s mouth
) comes from that one-off drive in the 037 in Finland.
So the team are testing in the forests before the event and Pentti is having trouble acclimatising to the car’s nervousness. Actually, it’s a disaster – he has no confidence with it, which is something of a problem on the 1000 Lakes. Anyway they beaver away at it, gradually getting the setup more suited to Pentti’s tastes. By the end of the test session, the car is brilliant – Pentti is supremely happy with it, he’s sure he’s going to win.
Come the event start, the 037 is again all over the place – Pentti reckons it’s basically undriveable. Eventually, he finishes up fifth; Alen finishes third in the first Lancia home.
Now the punchline...
Turns out that Markku drove Pentti’s car after he’d gone home from the test and rather liked the new settings. So much so, in fact, that he paid the mechanics $10,000 to switch the settings over to his car and revert Pentti’s car to the pre-test ones...
The word, I believe, is ‘gamesmanship’...?
(For those who are wondering – yes, Markku and Pentti still get along just fine...)