Motorsport Memorial -

Henri Toivonen

Complete name: Henri Pauli Toivonen

Birth date: 25.Aug.1956

Birth Place: Jyväskylä, Finland

Death date: 02.May.1986

Death Place: Col d'Ominanda, Corse, France

Nationality: Finland

Gender: male

Age at death: 29

Event date: 02.May.1986

Series: Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship

Race: 30ème Tour de Corse - Rallye de France

Event type: rally stage

Country: France

Venue: Tour de Corse

Variant: 1986, eighteenth special stage, Corte-Taverna

Role: driver

Vehicle type: car

Vehicle sub-type: sportscar

Vehicle brand/model: Lancia Delta S4

Vehicle number: 4

Notes:
Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto were killed in an accident which occurred at 14h58 on Friday, 02 May 1986, about seven kilometers after the start of the 18th special stage Corte-Taverna of the 1986 Tour de Corse.

It happened in the Col d'Ominanda downhill, between Corte and Castirla. Toivonen, even though suffering from flu, was leading the rally with an advantage of 2min45 overthe Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 of Bruno Saby-Jean-François Fauchille. He lost control of his Lancia Delta S4 after hitting a small wall in a fast left bend, the car suddenly went off the road on the right side, plunged down a ravine landing on its roof, crashed into a tree and exploded. Unfortunately there were no marshals or spectators nearby to lend assistance. First racers to arrive in the place of the accident, Bruno Saby and Miki Biasion, found both driver and co-driver still trapped in their seats and burned to death.

The fatal accident had no witnesses and the remains of the Lancia Delta S4 were merely blackened spaceframe, making it impossible to determine to cause of the accident. According to an amateur film-maker, the explosion of the car which was magnesium, plastic and fiberglass built with relatively little regard to safety, occurred a few seconds after the impact into a tree, probably as its fuel tank ruptured.

It happened in a very difficult corner. According to Michéle Mouton's interview after the tragedy, she and her co-driver Fabrizia Pons in a Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 had marked the bend with a double exclamation mark in her pace notes, entry 120 km/h (74.5 mi/h) exit 70 km/h (43.5 mi/h).

The stage was subsequently canceled. Saby-Fauchille's Peugeot 205 T16 eventually won the rally.

The death of Toivonen and Cresto occurred exactly one year after the fatal accident that claimed the life of Attilio Bettega, during the 1985 Tour de Corse, at the wheel of a Lancia, also with the same race number #4. Ironically, it was found that Sergio Cresto had written a testament on a piece of paper as he sat at the "Chez Walter" bar in Casamozza, nearly Bastia, with Toivonen and other Lancia Martini team's members and mechanics, only ten days before the fateful 1986 Tour de Corse.

Another fatality involving a Lancia, occurred about one month and a half later. Actually it had great impact on the Martini Lancia sport future programme. The crash that claimed the life of test-driver Giacomo Maggi at the Fiat private test track of La Mandria near Turin, in a Martini Lancia LC2, on 21 June 1986 caused the demise of Lancia's involvement in sportscar races.

By the end of 1986 the FIA-Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile disestablished the Group B class after a series of major rally accidents, including Toivonen's and Cresto's fatal crash. The Group B regulations, introduced in 1982, fostered some of the quickest, most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built. The 1987 World Rally Championship was reserved only for Group A and Group N cars.

Cover of the book "Toivonen. Pauli, Henri & Harri: Finland's fastest family"
by Esa Illoinen, published by McKlein Publishing in 2012.

Henri Toivonen's Biography
by Nanni Dietrich

The name Toivonen had a long association with rallying, Henri was the elder son of a legend of Finnish rallying, the great Pauli Toivonen, who won the 1966 Rallye de Monte-Carlo in a Citroën after Timo Mäkinen's Mini Cooper was disqualified on a lighting triviality, and in 1968 won the European Rally Championship. Pauli initially encouraged his son Henri to take up the sport, and also Harry Toivonen, Henri's four-year younger brother, later became a professional circuit racer.

Henri Pauli "Henkka" Toivonen started his racing career as a boy in karting races, then he moved to saloon cars, winning his class in the Finnish Cup. In 1976 he switched to single seaters, racing in the Scandinavian Formula Vee Championship - one win -, then he progressed to Formula Super Vee, winning a round of the European series and becoming the Finnish Champion in 1977. According to Finnish legislation on rally competition, a driver had to wait until he was 19 to compete in his first rally. Henri Toivonen had his debut in the 1975 Rally of Finland-1000 Lakes, driving a Simca Rallye-2, with co-driver Antero Lindquist. His first major result was a 5th place overall at the wheel of a Chrysler Avenger, once again with Lindquist as co-driver, in the 1977 1000 Lakes Rally, which was based around his hometown of Jyväskylä. In 1978 he went on to compete in two World Rally Championship rounds for Citroën, in Portugal and Acropolis rallies. He didn't finish either event, but he proved to be very quick and impressed a lot of people.

He was offered a private Porsche drive for his home 1000 Lakes Rally - retired due to an engine failure - and a works Chrysler Sunbeam for the 1978 Lombard RAC Rally. He finished 9th with co-driver Juhani Korhonen. That same year, Toivonen scored his maiden wins, at the Nordic Rally and the Tott-Ralli, both rounds of the Finnish Rally Championship.

In 1979, he competed in 15 rallies in the British, Finnish and European championships, and also in two World Rally Championship events. In the 1000 Lakes Rally he drove a Fiat-Abarth 131 Rally co-driven by Juha Paajanen, matching the pace of the leaders before going off the road, and at the RAC Rally in a Ford Escort RS, with Phil Boland - retired. By the end of the season Henri Toivonen was signed up by the Talbot Competition team. With Antero Lindqvist he won the Arctic Rally in January 1980, then the pair moved to England to contest for the Talbot team the British Open Rally series, with Guy Fréquelin-Jean Todt and Russell Brookes-Paul White as team mates. After they scored a 5th place in the Rallye Sanremo, the team decided to replace Antero Lindquist with the experienced British co-driver Paul White, nicknamed by Henri as "Chalkie". Thanks to Paul White's knowledge of the British special stages, Toivonen took his first World Rally Championship victory at the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally in Great Britain, when he was just 24-year-old. He became the youngest driver ever to win a World Championship rally.

The following year Henri planned a full World Rally Championship programme in the Talbot Lotus, with Fred Gallagher as co-driver, but the car was not competitive against the international Group B machinery. Despite the performance handicap, he still managed a 5th place on the Rallye de Monte-Carlo and two 2nd places in the Portugal and Sanremo rallies. He obtained just one outright win in the Audi Sport International Rally, the final round of the British Open Rally Championship, the only win of the season for team Talbot. In 1982 he moved to the Rothmans-Opel Europe team, managed by Tony Fall and Dave Richards, with the likes of Walter Röhrl, Ari Vatanen and Jimmy McRae as team mates. He scored a 3rd place in the Acropolis, 5th on the Sanremo and 3rd on the RAC Rally, driving one of the works Opel Ascona 400s. He also made a guest appearance in one round of the British Formula 3 Championship at Thruxton, finishing in a creditable 10th place at the wheel of a Ralt RT3 - Toyota entered by Eddie Jordan Racing.

In 1983 Toivonen went on with Opel Team Europe, driving the new Manta 400 Group B car, rather underpowered against the powerful Audi Quattro A2 and Lancia Rally 037. He won the Manx Rally in the Isle of Man with Fred Gallagher and the Mille Pistes Rally in the Camargue region of France, with co-driver Ian Grindrod. In the World Rally Championship he finished 6th in the Rallye de Monte-Carlo and 4th in the Rallye Sanremo. He also drove a gorgeous Ferrari 308GTB tuned by Giuliano Michelotto in the San Marino Rally, co-driven for the first time by his country-fellow Juha Piironen, but they did not finish the rally.

In October of 1983 Toivonen competed in two World Sportscar Championship rounds, sharing a Porsche 956 entered by team Richard Lloyd Racing with Derek Bell and Jonathan Palmer. They finished 4th in the 6 Hours of Imola and in the next race, the 1000 Km of Mugello they climbed on the podium with an impressive 3rd place, behind the winners Stefan Johansson-Bob Wollek in a Jöst Porsche 956 and Riccardo Patrese-Alessandro Nannini in a Martini Lancia LC2, second.

Henri Toivonen's association with Opel Team Europe came to a finish at the end of 1983. He signed for a drive in a works Rothmans Porsche 911S in the 1984 European Rally Championship. The team was run by David Richards’ Prodrive. His European season was very successful, he won five rallies in a row, but despite missing several events due to ill health, back problems in particular, Toivonen finished 2nd in the championship, behind the Italian Lancia driver Carlo Capone, who raced just with Sergio Cresto as co-driver.

During the season, Lancia team boss Cesare Fiorio offered him a Martini-Lancia Rally 037 for three World Rally Championship events. Toivonen made his debut in the Rallye de Portugal, and his best result was a 3rd place at his home event, the 1984 1000 Lakes Rally. It was enough to convince Cesare Fiorio to sign on him for the following season, with Juha Piironen as co-driver. The 1985 season started with a 6th place in the Rallye de Monte-Carlo, then Toivonen crashed his Lancia 037 into a wall during the European Costa Smeralda Rally, causing himself serious neck injuries.

Two weeks later, on 02 May 1985 his team mate Attilio Bettega was killed during the Tour de Corse. In August of 1985 Toivonen came back to racing, after a four-month long convalescence, driving his Lancia Rally 037 in the 1000 Lakes Rally, finishing 4th, and in the subsequent Rallye Sanremo where he took a 3rd place, the first of four works Lancia in a row, behind the winning Audi Quattro S1 of Walter Röhrl-Christian Geistdörfer and Timo Salonen-Seppo Harjanne, second in a Peugeot 205 Turbo 16.

The Lancia team replaced the 037 with the new, extremely powerful. lightweight Delta S4 before the Lombard RAC Rally, final event of the season. The car turned out to be an impressive success, as Henri Toivonen now partnered with Britain's Neil Wilson, won the rally and team mates Markku Alén-Ilkka Kivimäki finished second. Toivonen was 6th in the 1985 Championship table.

His new co-driver for the following season was Sergio Cresto, who was invited by Cesare Fiorio to join Toivonen. The pair passed long time in Finland during the winter, training for their reliance, and 1986 began with a convincing victory on the prestigious Rallye de Monte-Carlo. Their astonishing win made Toivonen-Cresto the favorite for the title. But in the following Swedish Rally their Lancia Delta S4 had engine failure and they did not finish, then they won the Costa Smeralda Rally. During the 1986 Rallye de Portugal, Joaquim Santos lost control of his Ford RS200 Group B and plunged into the crowd, killing three spectators. All the factory teams, including Lancia, decided to withdraw from the rally. The next round of the World Rally Championship was the 30th edition of the Tour de Corse.

Henri Toivonen was survived by his wife Erja whom he married in 1983, and their two sons Markus and Arla. No one of the children moved to motorsport. In 2007 Arla Toivonen gave birth to a son who was called Henri.

On Henri Toivonen's honor, fellow rally racer and former Audi works driver Michéle Mouton organized the yearly Race of Champions in Canary Islands, Spain, in 1988.

Henry Tovonen's grave, along with his father Pauli's grave in the Espoo Church Cemetery in Espoo, Finland.
Photo courtesy of Richie Tindagni's private collection. Reproduced under kind permission, all rights reserved.

Sources:

Book "World Rallying 1986/1987", by Martin Holmes.
Book "Toivonen. Pauli, Henri & Harry, Finland's Fastest Family" by Esa Illoinen, McKlein Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978392745861.
Magazine Auto Esporte, issue 257, May 1986, article "A morte de Toivonen na Córsega", page 80 [incorrect special stage].
Magazine Rombo, issue 06 May 1986.
Magazine Autosport, issue of 29 July 2004, page 8 [K1].
Magazine MotorSport, issue April 2009.
Magazine Autosprint, issue of 03 May 2011, page 54/56.
Website RallyBase, by Tjeerd van der Zee, page http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=profile&driverid=3253 .
Website RallyBase, by Tjeerd van der Zee, page http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=result&rallyid=219 and page http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=profile&driverid=3524 .
Website AUTOSPORT → Forums → The Nostalgia Forum, thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 27, posting by "ReWind", message http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showtopic=9705&view=findpost&p=1472063 .
Website AUTOSPORT → Forums → The Nostalgia Forum, thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 30, posting by "gdecarli", message http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showtopic=9705&view=findpost&p=1500141 .
Website AUTOSPORT → Forums → The Nostalgia Forum, thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 30, posting by "Milan Fistonic", message http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showtopic=9705&view=findpost&p=1500214 .
Website eWRC-Result.com by Tomáš "Shacki" Wanka, page http://www.ewrc-results.com/profile.php?p=11917&t=Henri-Toivonen .
E-mail by Tjeerd van der Zee, dated 18 December 2003.
E-mails by Tjeerd van der Zee, dated 27 June 2004 (two messages).
E-mail by Rick Kelly, dated 07 August 2004, citing [K1].