Henri Toivonen - The Early Days

The First part of a new series every week featuring extracts from the Toivonen Family book. I would defiantly recommend with book not only to any Toivonen fans but rallying fans in general. Hopefully this will give you an insight to one of the sports greatest drivers.

Enjoy

Credit Toivonen Book by Esa Illoninen published by Mcklein

Toivonen, of course, is best remembered as one of rallying’s finest talents, but it was circuit racing – or rather karting – that fired his early passion for the sport.

While Keke Rosberg, who would go onto become Formula One world champion in 1982, was busy winning the premier A-class karting title in Finland back in 1971, a young Henri Toivonen was taking the A-junior class by storm.

“Everybody was paying attention, it was after all the son of Pauli Toivonen now racing,” remembers Rosberg. “Two years earlier Pauli asked me to lead Henri for a couple of laps to show him the lines and then let him overtake and to watch from behind. There was nothing much to teach him, he was just a natural.”

Toivonen continued his karting career in 1972 as a 15-year-old, only this time he was now a member of the official Racing Team AAW, which also had interests in Interserie, Formula SuperVee and rallying through Marcus Gronholm’s father Ulf. Henri underlined his potential by winning both the Finnish and Scandinavian junior titles and the prestigious Lapland Cup in Sweden.

After progressing through the junior ranks Henri took part in the Karting World Championships in Estoril in 1974 and was the only Finn to make it to the finals. While Riccardo Patrese was crowned champion and Eddie Cheever finished second, Henri was classified 18th “after colliding with Alain Prost” according to Pauli.

In the August of that year Henri got his driving licence. With it came a green Simca Rallye 2 from Pauli, who was now marketing the French make in Finland after the takeover of Rootes by Chrysler. This Simca became a familiar sight to the taxi drivers of the Toivonen suburb in Helsinki. Their stand was located on the inside of a bend, which to Henri would have been a fast downhill left. Several times a day he would fly past, flat in third, the car leaning heavily on its offside suspension.

He used the car for even the shortest of distances. School was just over a kilometre away and, of course, he drove. The headmistress was Annikki Rimminen. “The thing I remember about Henri Toivonen is that he was always late for class. We would hear the buzz of an engine, a shower of gravel, the slam of a car door and then Henri would enter the classroom, one or two minutes late. I tried to suggest to him that perhaps it would be wise to get going a minute or two earlier, but it was always the same.”

Henri got his competition licence in January 1975. He won his first ever event, an ice race on Finland’s western coast. Two days after his 19th birthday he made his rallying debut, on the 1000 Lakes no less, although his charge was halted by a cracked sump, the legacy of his Simca’s suspension dampers overheating. He raced Formula Vee, saloons and sportscars but it wasn’t long before rallying took hold and the Henri Toivonen success story well and truly began.