Hannu Olavi Mikkola (24 May 1942 − 25 February 2021)
was a
Finnish champion world
rally driver. He was a seven-time winner of the
1000 Lakes Rally
Rally Finland (formerly known as the Neste Rally Finland, Neste Oil Rally Finland, 1000 Lakes Rally and Rally of the Thousand Lakes; fi, Suomen ralli, sv, Finska rallyt) is a rallying, rally competition in the Finnish Lakeland in Central Finla ...
in Finland and won the
RAC Rally
Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) cale ...
in Great Britain four times.
Career
Mikkola's rally career spanned 31 years, starting with a
Volvo PV544
The Volvo PV is a series of two-door, four-passenger car models — the PV444 and the PV544 — made by Volvo from 1947 to 1965. During World War II's early stages, Volvo decided that a new, smaller car that could deliver good fuel economy would ...
in 1963, but his most successful period was during the 1970s and 1980s. The 1970s saw Mikkola a frontrunner in many international events, usually in a
Ford Escort. He became the first overseas driver to win the East African
Safari Rally in 1972, partnered by Gunnar Palm and again in a Ford Escort. In
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
he made a serious challenge at the
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and ...
title, ultimately finishing runner-up, only one point behind champion
Björn Waldegård
Björn Waldegård (12 November 1943 – 29 August 2014) was a Swedish rally driver, and the winner of the inaugural World Rally Championship for drivers in 1979. His Swedish nickname was "Walle".
Career
Waldegård, who came from Rimbo, had a ...
.
Mikkola was joined by
Swedish co-driver
Arne Hertz in 1977 and the pair were very quickly a force to be reckoned with, winning the
British Rally Championship
The British Rally Championship is a rallying series based in the United Kingdom. The first championship was run in 1958 and it has been licensed by the Motor Sports Association (MSA) since 1999. MSA has opted not to run the series in 2015, in ...
in 1978 in an Escort. The Mikkola/Hertz partnership lasted for thirteen years, through to the end of the 1990 season. He was partnered by Johnny Johansson for the 1991 season.
Mikkola was runner-up again in the
1980
Events January
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 9 – In ...
season with Ford, but switched to the new
Audi
Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide.
The o ...
factory team for the
1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...
season, to drive the revolutionary
four wheel drive Audi Quattro. The partnership was successful from the outset: Mikkola led the 1981
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeast ...
, the Audi's first event, until an accident put him out of the event. He convincingly won the next WRC event, the
Swedish Rally
The Rally Sweden ( sv, Svenska rallyt), formerly the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, a ...
, but the Quattro had problems with reliability, and despite another win on the RAC Rally, Mikkola only managed third in the driver's championship. He won the 1000 Lakes and RAC rallies the
following year, but did not improve on third position in the championship, ultimately finishing behind
Opel
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
's
Walter Röhrl
Walter Röhrl (; born 7 March 1947) is a German rally and auto racing driver, with victories for Fiat, Opel, Lancia and Audi as well as Porsche, Ford and BMW. Röhrl has scored 14 victories over his career, with his notable achievements includin ...
and teammate
Michèle Mouton
Michèle Mouton (born 23 June 1951) is a French former rally driver. Competing in the World Rally Championship for the Audi factory team, she took four victories and finished runner-up in the drivers' world championship in 1982.
Mouton debuted ...
.
1983
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...
was to be Mikkola's year. Four wins and three second places saw him and co-driver Arne Hertz finally take the World Championship title. With that, he until this day is the oldest rally world champion. A second place in the championship followed in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
, behind his teammate
Stig Blomqvist
Stig Lennart Blomqvist (born 29 July 1946) is a retired Swedish rally driver. He made his international breakthrough in 1971. Driving an Audi Quattro for the Audi factory team, Blomqvist won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1984 an ...
, but
1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
saw him compete in only four world rallies, with three retirements and a fourth place, and slip to 22nd in the final standings after the Audi team was overwhelmed by new
Group B competition from
Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...
and
Lancia
Lancia () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of FCA Italy S.p.A., which is currently a Stellantis division. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganised its businesses, but it ...
. Mikkola remained with Audi until the
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
season, winning the
Safari Rally in a
Group A
Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived vehicles intended for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles we ...
Audi 200
__NOTOC__
Year 200 ( CC) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 953 ''Ab urb ...
that year, before switching to
Mazda
, commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan.
In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one mi ...
.
He remained with Mazda until entering semi-retirement in 1991, although he continued to make sporadic appearances on international rallies until retiring completely from motorsport in 1993. Mikkola has made brief appearances since then, including re-uniting with his co-driver
Gunnar Palm
Gunnar Palm (born 25 February 1937, Kristinehamn) is a former Swedish rally co-driver. He is the brother of racer Torsten Palm. He lives with Gunilla Nilars.
Racing career
Palm won the 1963 Monte Carlo Rally, co-driving for Erik Carlsson, in a ...
for the 25th anniversary run of the
1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally
The 1970 London-Mexico World Cup Rally was the first of two World Cup Rallies to be held and the second of four marathon rallies to be held in a nine-year period beginning with the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon. The motor rally started at Wembley ...
(Mikkola won the original 1970 event and the 1995 re-run) and competing in the
London-Sydney Marathon 2000 Rally, re-united with his 1968 1000 Lakes Rally winning Ford Escort RS1600 and co-driven by his oldest son, Juha Mikkola, founder of
Canada Cup (floorball).
In September 2008, Mikkola took part in the ''
Colin McRae
Colin Steele McRae, (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007) was a Scottish rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver and the youngest person to win the World Rally Championship ...
Forest Stages Rally'', a round of the
Scottish Rally Championship
The Scottish Rally Championship is a rallying series run throughout Scotland over the course of a year, that comprises both gravel and closed surface rallies.http://www.scottishrallychampionship.co.uk/ SRC Homepage
Points are awarded to the top ...
. He was one of a number of former world champions to take part in the event in memory of McRae, who died in 2007. In 2011, Mikkola was inducted into the
Rally Hall of Fame along with Röhrl.
Mikkola died on 25 February 2021 of cancer at the age of 78.
WRC victories
:
Racing record
Complete WRC results
Complete British Saloon Car Championship results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (ma ...
) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
,
SIL
,
SNE
,
THR
,
SIL
,
CRY
Crying is the dropping of tears (or welling of tears in the eyes) in response to an emotional state, or pain. Emotions that can lead to crying include sadness, anger, and even happiness. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secreto ...
,
MAL
,
CRO
,
SIL
,
OUL
,
BRH
, style="background:#FFDF9F;",
BRH5
! 35th
! 4
! 10th
, -
,
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
! British Vita Racing
!
Ford Escort TC
!
,
BRH
,
SNE
,
THR
,
SIL
,
CRY
Crying is the dropping of tears (or welling of tears in the eyes) in response to an emotional state, or pain. Emotions that can lead to crying include sadness, anger, and even happiness. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secreto ...
,
SIL
,
SIL
,
CRO
,
BRH
,
OUL
, style="background:#EFCFFF;",
BRHRet
,
BRH
! NC
! 0
! NC
, -
!colspan="19",
Trivia
Hannu Mikkola was involved in the only international rally to end in a dead heat. On the 1978 Burmah International, Mikkola and
Russell Brookes
Russell Brookes (16 August 1945 – 30 October 2019) was a British rally driver. He won the British Rally Championship with a Ford Escort RS1800 in 1977 and with an Opel Manta 400 in 1985. In 1978, he won the Rally New Zealand, a round of the ...
finished equal on total stage times, but Mikkola won the event by virtue of having been faster than Brookes on the opening stage.
References
External links
RallyBase profileHannu Mikkola documentary (in Swedish) Ögonblicken som förändrade sporten
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikkola, Hannu
1942 births
2021 deaths
World Rally Champions
World Rally Championship drivers
Finnish rally drivers
People from Joensuu
Deaths from cancer in Finland
Sportspeople from North Karelia
Audi Sport drivers