Harry Källström

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Repair on the 1.6 liter Lancia Fulvia from Harry Källström; during the 1972 Press-on-Regardless rally

Harry Källström (born June 30, 1939 in Södertälje ; † July 13, 2009 in Strömsund ) was a Swedish rally and circuit racing driver. His nickname was " Sputnik ".

Early years

Harry Källström's career spanned three decades. He made his debut in the Swedish rally championship in 1957 and was still active in the world rally championship in the mid-1980s . He won the overall ranking of the Swedish rally championship four times; he celebrated his first overall victory in 1959. At that time he was already a works driver in the rally team of the Swedish Volkswagen general importer. He achieved his first major international success in 1963, together with his long-time co-driver Gunnar Häggbom, at the RAC rally , where he finished second in a VW 1500S behind his compatriots Tom Trana and Sune Lindstöm, who drove a Volvo PV544 . This success brought him into the spotlight of the rally scene and a works contract with BMC followed .

In the Mini Cooper S

Källström was involved with BMC until 1968, on the one hand with the team in Great Britain and on the other hand with the Swedish importer, who handled the races in Scandinavia. In 1964 he won his second Swedish championship, was second again in the RAC rally in 1966 and also drove the Mini Cooper S in the European Touring Car Championship . After BMC's involvement in rallying ended, Källström switched to Lancia at the beginning of the 1968 season .

Lancia

In the six years with the Italian team, the Swede rose to become one of the best rally drivers of his generation. In his first season with the Lancia Fulvia , he finished fourth in the San Remo Rally and sixth in the Acropolis Rally . During a detour on the circuit, he achieved third place overall in the 84-hour race at the Nürburgring. The trio Källström / was beaten Munari / Pinto only two factory Porsche . The first overall victories followed in 1969. He won the San Romeo Rally, the Spanish RACE rally, and triumphed for the first time at the RAC rally in Wales . At the end of the year he was crowned European rally champion. On the circuit he won the 39th edition of the Marathon de la Route at the Nürburgring together with Sergio Barbasio and the Briton Tony Fall . In this longest endurance race in the world, the trio won after 322 laps in front of a German BMW team and a French Triumph TR6 team. Further successes for Lancia: Another overall victory in the RAC Rally 1970, second place in San Romeo in 1970 and third places in the Rally Sweden in 1971 and 1972.

Datsun

In 1973 Källström moved from Lancia to Datsun. He finished second at the East African Safari Rally , despite having actually won the race on a Datsun 1800SSS . For the first and so far only time in the history of the World Rally Championship, at the end of a rally two drivers had covered exactly the same time and recorded an identical number of penalty points. So after the end of the race, both Källström and Shekhar Mehta were winners of the race. Hours after the last car had crossed the finish line, the Kenyan organizers declared Mehta the winner because he had set the faster time in the first special tour. A decision that is still controversial to this day. Källström competed in rallies for Datsun until 1979 and in 1976 secured his only overall victory in the World Rally Championship with his success at the Acropolis Rally.

He contested his last race in 1992 at a national rally in Sweden on a Suzuki Swift . By then he had long been a successful entrepreneur and owner of a transport company in the north of Sweden. Harry Källström died in July 2009 of complications from a heart attack.

statistics

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season team race car 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th
1967 Renault Renault 8 United StatesUnited States DAY United StatesUnited States SEB ItalyItaly MON BelgiumBelgium SPA ItalyItaly TAR GermanyGermany ONLY FranceFrance LEM GermanyGermany HOK ItalyItaly MUG United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRH ItalyItaly CCE AustriaAustria ZEL SwitzerlandSwitzerland OVI GermanyGermany ONLY
DNF

Web links

Commons : Harry Källström  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The 39th Marathon de la Route ( Memento of February 2, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  2. Shekhar Mehta winner of the Safari Rally