Racing career
Palm won the 1963 Monte Carlo Rally, co-driving for Erik Carlsson, in a Saab. The event was the first professional rally the pair entered. They went on to several top finishes during 1963 and 1964, in particular the East African Safari Rally and the Liège-Sofia-Liège rally.
Co-driving for Hannu Mikkola, in 1970 Palm won the 16,000 mi (26,000 km)-long World Cup Rally in a Ford Escort RS1600. In 1972, the duo won the Safari Rally, also in an Escort RS1600.
Palm collaborated with many of the world's most successful rally drivers, including Rauno Aaltonen, Ove Andersson, Tony Fall, Timo Mäkinen, Bengt Söderström [ fr; it; sv ] , and Tom Trana. Palm co-drove with Söderström to win the 1967 European Rally Championship in a Lotus Cortina.
Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests, navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. Rallies may be short in the form of trials at a single venue, or several thousand miles long in an extreme endurance rally.
Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 to 2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times. In addition, Vatanen won the 1997 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. Since 2013 Vatanen has been the President of the Estonian Autosport Union.
Markku Allan Alén is a Finnish former rally and race car driver. He drove for Fiat, Lancia, Subaru and Toyota in the World Rally Championship, and held the record for most stage wins (801) in the series, until Sébastien Loeb overtook it at the 2011 Rally Catalunya. Alén's phrase "now maximum attack" became well-known.
Stig Lennart Blomqvist 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 and finished runner-up in 1985. He won his home event, the Swedish Rally, seven times.
Massimo "Miki" Biasion is an Italian rally driver, two-time World Rally champion.
Björn Waldegård was a Swedish rally driver, and the winner of the inaugural World Rally Championship for drivers in 1979. His Swedish nickname was "Walle".
Hannu Olavi Mikkola was a Finnish champion world rally driver. He was a seven-time winner of the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland and won the RAC Rally in Great Britain four times.
Timo Mäkinen was one of the original "Flying Finns" of motor rallying. He is best remembered for his hat-trick of wins in the RAC Rally and the 1000 Lakes Rally.
Arne Hertz is a former rally co-driver from Sweden.
Roger Albert Clark, MBE was a British rally driver during the 1960s and '70s, and the first competitor from his country to win a World Rally Championship (WRC) event when he triumphed at the 1976 RAC 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 Stadium in London on 19 April 1970 and finished in Mexico City on 27 May 1970, covering approximately 16,000 miles (25,700 km) through Europe and South America. It was won by Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palm, driving a Ford Escort.
Bruno Thiry is a Belgian rally driver. He was born in St. Vith, Liège Province.
Tony Pond was a British rally driver.
The Ford World Rally Team, also known as the Ford Motor Co. Team prior to 2005, is Ford Motor Company's full factory World Rally Championship team. In its current form, it has been a competitor since the 1997 season, when Ford Motor Company's motorsport arm selected the Malcolm Wilson Motorsport company to run its factory team, entering the Ford Escort World Rally Car. The new team took their first victory in the 1997 Acropolis Rally.
Nicky Grist is a Welsh former rally co-driver, born in Ebbw Vale. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1993 to 2002. He won 21 rallies with more than one driver.
Gwyndaf Evans is a Welsh former rally driver. He won the British Rally Championship in 1996, and was also the runner-up in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2010. On the international stage his participation was limited, but he used his local knowledge to great success in the RAC Rally, where he won the Group N production car class twice driving a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4, in 1990 and Ford Escort RS Cosworth in 1993. In 1994, driving a Group A Ford Escort RS2000, he scored a then career high seventh place overall, winning his class once more, before going one better with a sixth place finish the following year, and his fourth class victory in six years.
The Ford Escort RS Cosworth is a rally version homologation special of the fifth generation European Ford Escort. It was designed to qualify as a Group A car for the World Rally Championship, in which it competed between 1993 and 1998. It was available as a road car from 1992 until 1996 in very limited numbers. The first 2500 cars made before 1 January 1993 are in fact "Homologation special versions." It was instantly recognisable due to its large "whale tail" rear spoiler. One of the main selling points was the Cosworth YBT, a highly tunable turbocharged 2.0 L (1,993 cc) with a bore x stroke of 90.8 mm × 77 mm Inline-four engine which had an output of 227 PS in standard trim. Tuning companies have achieved power outputs of over 1,000 bhp.
Kosti Katajamäki is a rally driver from Finland.
Nicholas Whale is a British racing driver. He currently competes in historic rallying and FIA historic saloon racing events. He runs Silverstone Auctions, Classic Car Auctions, Automotive Auctions and Nick Whale Motorhomes. He was a main board director of both the BRDC and the MSA and also a trustee and a Director of the Midlands Air Ambulance.
Scott Martin is a British rallying co-driver who competes in the FIA World Rally Championship.
