Henri Toivonen

Henri Pauli Toivonen (25 August 1956 – 2 May 1986) was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his younger brother, Harri, became a professional circuit racer.

Toivonen's first World Rally Championship victory came with a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus at the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally in Great Britain, just after his 24th birthday. He had the record of being the youngest driver ever to win a world rally until his countryman Jari-Matti Latvala won the 2008 Swedish Rally at the age of 22. After driving for Opel and Porsche, Toivonen was signed by Lancia. Despite nearly ending up paralysed at the Rally Costa Smeralda early in 1985, he returned to rallying later that year. He won the last event of the season, the RAC Rally, as well as the 1986 season opener, the Monte Carlo Rally, which his father had won exactly 20 years earlier.

Toivonen died in a crash on 2 May 1986 while leading the Tour de Corse rally in Corsica. His American co-driver, Sergio Cresto, also died when their Lancia Delta S4 plunged down a ravine and exploded. The crash had no close witnesses and the only remains of the car were the blackened spaceframe, making it impossible to determine the cause. Within hours, Jean-Marie Balestre, then President of the FISA, banned the powerful Group B rally cars from competing the following season, ending rallying's supercar era.

Toivonen started his career in circuit racing and was also very competitive on tarmac. He raced successfully in a European Endurance Championship event, achieved praise from Eddie Jordan, in whose Formula Three team Toivonen made a few guest appearances, and impressed in his Formula One test for March Grand Prix. The annual Race of Champions, originally organised in Toivonen's memory, awards the winning individual driver the Henri Toivonen Memorial Trophy.

Early career

Toivonen had strong ties to rallying at an early age. He was born in Jyväskylä, the city which has hosted the Rally Finland since 1951. His father, Pauli Toivonen, was a successful international rally driver who would go on to win the Monte Carlo, 1000 Lakes and Acropolis rallies and become the 1968 European Rally Champion. Henri Toivonen learned to drive when he was five years old, but despite his rallying connections, started competition in circuit racing. He began with karts and won the Finnish Cup in touring cars before switching to Formula Vee, winning one round of the Scandinavian Championship in his first year. Toivonen graduated to Formula Super Vee the following year and won a round of the European Championship, as well as becoming the 1977 Finnish Champion in the Formula Vee class. Due to his family's concerns about the safety of circuit racing, he switched to rallying full-time. Toivonen's kart was purchased by the parents of a 6-year-old Mika Häkkinen, who would later be a two-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion.

Due to Finnish legislation, which at that time limited new drivers to a top speed of on open roads, Toivonen was unable to compete in rallying until he was 19 years old. While still focusing on his circuit racing career, he competed in his second world rally two years later and finished fifth in the 1977 1000 Lakes in a Chrysler Avenger.

Toivonen started his 1978 season at the Arctic Rally, the second round of both the European Rally Championship and World Rally Championship's "FIA Cup for Drivers", the predecessor to the official drivers' world championship which was established in 1979. He finished second, 3:41 minutes behind Ari Vatanen, and over seven minutes ahead of Markku Alén, who would go on to win the Cup. Toivonen went on to compete in two world championship rallies for Citroën. Although he did not finish either event, his driving attracted attention; a private Porsche team offered Toivonen a car for the 1000 Lakes Rally, as did Chrysler for the Lombard RAC Rally. At his home event, Toivonen had to retire due to an engine failure, but he finished ninth at the RAC Rally.

Works career

Talbot (1980–81)

Toivonen's first season driving for a major car manufacturer's 'works' team was largely a trial year. He started the season by winning the Arctic Rally in January, In hopes of better results, the team partnered Toivonen with three different co-drivers during the season: Antero Lindqvist, Paul White and Neil Wilson. At the next rally in Sanremo with Lindqvist, Toivonen finished fifth. In late November, Toivonen, this time partnered by White, surprised both experts and spectators by winning the Lombard RAC Rally, over four minutes ahead of runner-up Hannu Mikkola. Neither Toivonen nor Talbot were expected to be competitive in the rally. In an interview published in Autosport three days before the rally started, Toivonen himself had not expected to challenge for the win:

During the second leg, on Friday, 2 May, at the seventh kilometre of the 18th stage, Corte–Taverna, Toivonen's Lancia went off the side of the road at a tight left corner with no guardrail. The car plunged down a ravine and crashed on its roof. The aluminium fuel tank underneath the driver's seat was ruptured by the trees and exploded. and two young children, son Markus and daughter Arla, while Cresto was single with no children. The planned Group S was also cancelled and manufacturers were stuck with cars they could not race. Audi and Ford withdrew from Group B racing immediately, but other teams competed until the end of the season. The Tour de Corse continued the next day and Bruno Saby won with his Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2. Prior to Santos' and Toivonen's crashes, many commentators and drivers had warned of accidents resulting from drivers simply being unable to control their powerful cars. FISA was criticised for recognising the problem too late. Group B cars have been described as "too fast to race."

Legacy Toivonen was known as a competitive driver both on loose (gravel, dirt, sand, snow and ice) and tarmac surfaces, and he found it difficult to choose between circuit racing and rallying. After Toivonen's death, Jordan weighed in on his chances in Formula One: bquote|I don't know if he would have become a champion in Formula One. It always takes a lot of luck, and now one can doubt if he would have been granted that. But he would have won Grands Prix – of that I'm absolutely sure. With only wins and retirements in the last five of his rallies, he was at the peak of his career in the Lancia Delta S4, after finally finding a car that was both competitive and suitable for his driving style. However, Toivonen admitted having problems with the car: "I may have won the RAC Rally with Lancia, but I just did not know how to drive it. It seemed to have a mind of its own." This led to a number of stage wins but also to several bad accidents resulting from driving mistakes. Toivonen's career almost ended in early 1985, when he was nearly paralysed in the Rally Costa Smeralda accident – 1985 would have been his first full WRC season, excluding the extremely arduous endurance events in Africa- the Safari Rally and the Ivory Coast Rally for which he was never entered in his career- in fact, Toivonen never did a single rally outside Europe- not even the Safari Rally, which was considered one of the most prestigious rally events up until 2002, when it was taken off the WRC calendar. The World Rally Archive's Hall of Fame now names him an "icon for the one of the most controversial periods of rallying."

Toivonen was buried in Espoo, where his family moved from Jyväskylä when Toivonen was still very young. In Corsica, a marble slab dedicated to him and Sergio Cresto was placed at the curve where Toivonen drove out. The memorial place always has an unopened bottle of Martini, which is a reference to Toivonen's Martini-sponsored Lancia factory team. As of 2006, a local resident puts new flowers by the slab every day. In July, the Rally Marca Trevigiana in Italy was titled "Memorial Henri Toivonen" in honour of Toivonen. The rally was stopped after a fatal accident on the fourth stage. In 1988, former rally driver and arguably the most successful female race car driver in history, Michèle Mouton, organised the first Race of Champions to commemorate Toivonen's death. The Race of Champions was originally restricted to rally drivers, but became even more popular with the introduction of Formula One and NASCAR stars. The Henri Toivonen Memorial Trophy is still awarded to the winner of the individual event every year.

Another trophy bearing Toivonen's name was the Henri Toivonen Grand Attack Trophy, which was awarded by Peugeot's Rally Challenge, organised by Des O'Dell, "to the driver who most embodied the spirit shown by the young Finn." In 2006, Toivonen was honoured at the Neste Oil Rally Finland. An exhibition in memory of him was opened on 17 August in the Rally HQ Jyväskylä Paviljonki. The interviewing event was attended by his former teammate Markku Alén, former co-driver Juha Piironen, current Ford factory team boss Malcolm Wilson and his brother Harri Toivonen. Harri Toivonen quit his racing career in 2002, ending the 40-year racing history of the Toivonen family.

Complete WRC results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Points 1975 Henri Toivonen Simca Rallye 2 MON SWE KEN GRC MAR POR FINRet ITA FRA GBR N/A 0 1977 Henri Toivonen Chrysler Avenger MON SWE POR KEN NZL GRC FIN5 ITA CAN FRA GBR - 0 1978 Henri Toivonen Citroën CX 2400 MON SWE KEN PORRet GRCRet CAN ITA CIV FRA - 0 Porsche 911 FINRet Chrysler Sunbeam GBR9 1979 Henri Toivonen Fiat 131 Abarth MON SWE POR KEN GRC NZL FINRet CAN ITA FRA CIV – 0 Toyota Oil Ford Escort RS1800 GBRRet 1980 Talbot Cars GB Talbot Sunbeam Lotus MON SWE PORRet KEN GRC ARG NZL ITA5 FRA GBR1 CIV 10th 28 Talbot Motor Co FINRet 1981 Talbot Talbot Sunbeam Lotus MON5 SWE POR2 KEN FRARet GRCRet ARG BRA FINRet ITA2 CIV GBRRet 7th 38 1982 Rothmans Opel Rally Team Opel Ascona 400 MON SWE PORRet KEN FRA GRC3 NZL BRA FINRet ITA5 CIV GBR3 7th 32 1983 Rothmans Opel Rally Team Opel Ascona 400 MON6 SWE POR KEN FRA 14th 16 Opel Manta 400 GRCRet NZL ARG FINRet ITA4 CIV GBRRet 1984 Martini Lancia Lancia 037 Rally MON SWE PORRet KEN FRA GRCRet NZL ARG FIN3 ITA CIV GBR 16th 12 1985 Martini Lancia Lancia 037 Rally MON6 SWE POR KEN FRA GRC NZL ARG FIN4 ITA3 CIV 6th 48 Lancia Delta S4 GBR1 1986 Martini Lancia Lancia Delta S4 MON1 SWERet PORWD KEN FRARet GRC NZL ARG FIN CIV ITA GBR USA 13th 20