Pentti Airikkala

Pentti Airikkala (born September 4, 1945 in Helsinki , † September 30, 2009 in Bray , Berkshire , Great Britain ) was a Finnish rally driver .

Career

Airikkala contested his first rally in 1965 and took part in a total of 36 races for the World Rally Championship (WRC) between 1973 and 1990 . In 2003 he started for the last time in the World Rally Championship as part of a comeback on a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 at the Rally Great Britain . He won the same rally in 1989 (at that time still known as the RAC rally ) with a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 , which marked the most important success of his motorsport career. He also won the Finnish rally championship in 1974 in various Group 1 cars and the British rally championship in 1979 with a Vauxhall Chevette 2300 HS .

After finishing his active career, the Finn, who lives in England, founded a school for rally and racing drivers called Left Foot Braking in the county of Oxfordshire . Its most famous graduates are Colin McRae , Richard Burns , Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala were.

Airikkala died of complications from cancer in 2009 at the age of 64.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Airikkala, Pentti
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Finnish rally driver
DATE OF BIRTH	September 4, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH	Helsinki
DATE OF DEATH	September 30, 2009
Place of death	Bray (Berkshire) , United Kingdom