Simo Lampinen (born 22 June 1943) is a Finnish former rally driver, and one of the first of the "Flying Finns" who came to dominate the sport.
Simo Lampinen (born 22 June 1943) is a Finnish former rally driver, and one of the first of the "Flying Finns" who came to dominate the sport.
Lampinen was born in Porvoo. Having contracted polio at a young age, he was left with a pronounced limp, and as a result he was granted a driving licence aged 17 so he could travel to and from school more easily. He quickly graduated to competitive driving, and won the Finnish Rally Championship twice in succession in 1963 and 1964.
His early victories were in the Saab 96, before being lured to Lancia in 1970 where he continued his winning ways. He also drove for Peugeot, Fiat and Triumph, though without the same success.
More recently, he has been Clerk of the Course at the Rally Finland, the event he won three times himself, and he has also assisted Saab in two racing events; their Saab 900 Talladega Challenge in Alabama in 1996 where several speed records were set, and the 2000 Pikes Peak race, when Per Eklund won in a race-prepped Saab 9-3 Viggen.
| Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Lancia HF Squadra Corse | Lancia Fulvia 1.6 Coupé HF | MON Ret | SWE Ret | ITA Ret | KEN Ret | AUT Ret | GRE | GBR Ret | ||
| 1971 | Lancia HF Squadra Corse | Lancia Fulvia 1.6 Coupé HF | MON 6 | SWE | ITA Ret | KEN Ret | MAR | AUT | GRE 3 | GBR 6 | |
| 1972 | Lancia HF Squadra Corse | Lancia Fulvia 1.6 Coupé HF | MON 4 | SWE | KEN | MAR 1 | GRE 2 | AUT Ret | ITA Ret | USA | GBR 5 |
Henri Pauli Toivonen 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 brother, Harri, became a professional circuit racer.
The Saab 96 is an automobile manufactured and marketed by Saab from 1960 to January 1980, replacing the 93. The 96 featured aerodynamic two-door bodywork, four-passenger seating and at first a two-stroke, three-cylinder engine, later a four-stroke V4.
Juha Matti Pellervo Kankkunen is a Finnish former rally driver. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1983 to 2002. He won 23 world rallies and four drivers' world championship titles, which were both once records in the series. Both Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier have since collected more world titles, but no driver was able to repeat Kankkunen's feat of becoming a world champion with three different manufacturers until Ogier matched this achievement in 2020.
Tommi Antero Mäkinen is a Finnish racing executive and former driver.
Erik Hilding Carlsson was a Swedish rally driver for Saab. He was nicknamed "Carlsson på taket" as well as Mr. Saab.
Patricia Ann Moss-Carlsson was one of the most successful female auto rally drivers of all time, achieving three outright wins and seven podium finishes in international rallies. She was crowned European Ladies' Rally Champion five times. Her older brother Stirling Moss was a Formula One Grand Prix star during the 1950s. From 1963 until her death in 2008, Swedish rally driver Erik Carlsson was both her driving-partner and her husband.
Rally Finland is a rally competition in the Finnish Lakeland in Central Finland. The rally is driven on wide and smooth gravel roads, featuring blind crests and big jumps. It is the fastest event in the World Rally Championship and has been dubbed the "Grand Prix of Rallying" and the "Grand Prix on Gravel". Rally Finland is among the largest annually organised public events in the Nordic countries, attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators each year. The rally has been known to be very difficult for non-Nordic drivers; only seven drivers from countries other than Finland or Sweden have won the event- in the 1980s and before, the field was made up almost entirely of Finnish and Swedish drivers.
The Lancia Fulvia is an automobile produced by Lancia between 1963 and 1976. Named after Via Fulvia, the Roman road leading from Tortona to Turin, it was introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1963 and manufactured in three variants: Berlina 4-door saloon, 2-door Coupé, and Sport, an alternative fastback coupé designed and built by Zagato on the Coupé floorpan.
Walter Röhrl 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 including winning the World Rally Championship twice: in 1980 in a Fiat Abarth and in 1982 while driving for Opel. He has also competed in other forms of motorsport, such as endurance racing, winning in the GTP +3.0 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981 with the Porsche System team. Röhrl also set the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record in 1987 driving an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2. He is often regarded as one of the greatest rally drivers of all time.
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The 1986 World Rally Championship was the 14th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 13 rallies, including all twelve venues of the previous season as well as the addition of the Olympus Rally. This marked the return of the WRC to the United States and North America, as well as the first world rally to be held on the western side of the continent. The December rally would also be the only WRC event to feature Group B competition in the United States.
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The Lancia Delta Group A is a Group A rally car built for the Martini Lancia by Lancia to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Lancia Delta road car and replaced the Lancia Delta S4. The car was introduced for the 1987 World Rally Championship season and dominated the World Rally Championship, scoring 46 WRC victories overall and winning the constructors' championship a record six times in a row from 1987 to 1992, in addition to drivers' championship titles for Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biasion, making Lancia the most successful marque in the history of the WRC and the Delta the most successful car.
The 1974 1000 Lakes Rally was the third round of the shortened 1974 World Rally Championship season. It took place between 2 and 4 August 1974. The 1000 Lakes Rally didn't use special stages at this time to decide a winner. Instead all of the route was competitive - with the driver with the lowest accumulation of penalty time between time controls being declared the winner.