Leo Kinnunen

Leo Kinnunen

Nation:	Finland
Automobile world championship
First start:	1974 Swedish Grand Prix
Last start:	1974 Swedish Grand Prix
Constructors
1974  AAW Finland
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 1 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Leo Juhani Kinnunen (born August 5, 1943 in Tampere , † July 26, 2017 ) was a Finnish automobile racing driver .

Career

Leo Kinnunen learned to race like many of his compatriots in the Finnish forests. In contrast to his famous rally colleagues in the 1960s, however, Kinnunen wanted to go to the circuit and thus became the first Finn to take part in a Formula 1 world championship run.

Leo Kinnunen ( Volvo PV544 ), Bengt Söderström ( Ford Cortina GT ) and Simo Lampinen ( Saab 96 Sport ) at the 1964 1000 Lakes Rally

Leo Kinnunen in the Porsche 935 at the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1977

After success in national sports car races, he became a works driver at Porsche . From there he went to John Wyer , for whom he drove in 1970 as a partner of Pedro Rodríguez . The two were the dominant pair of World Championship of 1970. The duo won the 24 Hours of Daytona , the 1000 km race at Brands Hatch , the 1000 km race at Monza and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen , each on a Porsche 917 .

Kinnunen achieved a certain fame through his daring drive at the Targa Florio in 1970 in a Porsche 908 . As a partner of Rodríguez, he drove the last lap of the race with 33 minutes 36 seconds, which is by far the fastest lap ever achieved on the Sicilian circuit. He undercut Vic Elford's time of the previous year , which was already considered an “all-time record lap”, by 1 minute and 30 seconds. In the race he and Rodríguez finished second behind teammates Brian Redman and Jo Siffert . In 1971 he drove in the Interseries , including on his home track Keimola . In 1973 he finished third in Sicily together with the Swiss Claude Haldi . In the same year he also drove the 1000 Lakes Rally and also finished third behind Timo Mäkinen and Markku Alén in a Porsche Carrera .

Kinnunen never wanted to adapt to the now usual customs in international motorsport. Most of all, he steadfastly refused to learn English and remained a loner. Kinnunen was hit hard by the death of his friend Hans Laine , who burned helplessly in his vehicle after an accident during training for the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1970 . After a year at Alfa Romeo, Kinnunen drove for AAW Finland in the Interserie , a racing series for which he was "overqualified".

With AAW and Surtees TS-16 Ford - Cosworth he tried in 1974 in Formula 1. In six attempts to qualify, he failed five times. He was only able to qualify at the Swedish Grand Prix in Anderstorp , but had to retire after twelve laps with an engine failure.

Kinnunen drove GT and sports car races with various Porsche models until the end of the 1970s and then withdrew from racing.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1970	John Wyer Automotive Engineering	Porsche 917K	Pedro Rodríguez	failure	Engine failure
1976	Egon Evertz KG	Porsche 908/3	Egon Evertz	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1970	JW Automotive Engineering Ltd.	Porsche 917K	Joseph Siffert	Pedro Rodríguez	Rank 4

literature

• Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 74 - despite Ferrari Fittipaldi. Orac, Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-85368-815-2 .
• Pino Fondi: Targa Florio - 20th Century Epic. Giorgio Nada Editore Vimodrone 2006, ISBN 88-7911-270-8 .

Web links

Commons : Leo Kinnunen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• On the death of Leo Kinnunen (Finnish)