The Ultimate Flying Finn

Juha Kankkunen (pronounced YOU-haw KANK-i-nin) is not a name that’s remotely familiar to most people.  If you were to play “man-on-the-street” and ask people what they knew about him, you wouldn’t even need to carry a notebook and pencil with you.  Unless, of course, you were asking people in Finland.

In Finland, the name “Juha Kankkunen” is revered.  You see, Finns love rallying (which we discussed a couple months back) way more than most people do.  And over the years, there have been a pile of great rally drivers to come out of Finland.  And Juha Kankkunen is, without question, one of the elite “Flying Finns”.

Born in Laukaa on April 2, 1959, he grew up near Jyvaskyla (pronounced ya-VASK-il-a) which, for years, has been the hub of rallying in Finland.  His first success came in the most unlikely of places, when he won the Safari Rally in 1985 in a two-wheel-drive Toyota Celica.  Winning this ultimate test of speed and endurance on his first attempt thrust the young driver into the limelight.

He was immediately signed by Peugeot for 1986, where he drove the awesomely powerful 205 T16 to his first world title.  But several fatal accidents during the 1986 season ended the run of Group B cars (of which the 205 was one).  So Juha moved on…to Lancia where, driving a Group A Delta Integrale, he won another world title.

A couple of quiet years at Toyota were followed by a return to Lancia and a 3rd world title in 1991.  Toyota would then re-sign Kankkunen, and he would win his 4th and final WRC title under their moniker in 1993.  And then the wins stopped after 1994’s Rally Portugal, and it would be five years before the Flying Finn would taste victory again.  But this was the sport at that time.  Competition was stiff, as manufacturers built better and better cars, and a new series of talented drivers came on the scene with names like Sainz, and McRae, and Makinen, and Auriol.

But Juha Kankkunen remained consistently competitive.  In the 161 rallies he began, the podium was his landing place an astounding 75 times.  And then came 1999 and his move to Subaru.  The car struggled early in the season, but Kankkunen sat out two tarmac rallies to test the car for a series of upcoming gravel rallies.  The development work paid off in spades and, for the remainder of the year, the Impreza was almost untouchable on loose surfaces, winning 6 of the final 8 gravel rallies (and finishing 2nd in the other two).

The Flying Finn would collect the last two of his 23 total victories during this run.  The first, in Argentina, was in controversial fashion, as he disobeyed team orders calling for teammate Richard Burns to win.  The win prompted Burns’ co-driver Robert Reid to quip, “Where there’s a shark, there’s a Finn.”  The second win was in more traditional fashion and in front of the “home crowd” on the undulating, high-speed gravel tracks of Finland.

Juha Kankkunen still dusts off his collection of rally cars (and it’s a fabulous collection, to be sure) from time to time, closes down sections of road in Finland, dons the helmet, and lets fly…fame has its privileges.  But he also runs his own rally driving school (with long-time co-driver Juha Repo).  And in 2006, he set a new world speed record on ice, driving a largely stock Bentley Continental GT (his own personal car) over the flying kilometer at 199.86 mph.

A list of the top 5 rally drivers of all time would be a joke if it didn’t include Juha Kankkunen.

Happy Birthday, Juha Kankkunen!!

Recommended Viewing:  How about some video action?

Testing a Celica Grp A rally car

One of his last rallies…driving a Hyundai Accent

His great battle with Richard Burns on Finland’s stages in 1999

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Richard Burns: Born for Speed

As we’ve journeyed down this road, I hope you’ve discovered that we share a common interest or two.  Mine include reading (lots!), baseball, airplanes, and of course, history.  But there’s another love of mine, and while it occupies less time now than it used to, it’s still worth mentioning today.

Rallying.

And what is rallying?  Well, a quick search on the web would give you tons of information, but here’s a sort of Cliff’s notes.  Rallying is a sport…with cars, and it’s my favorite form of motorsport.  It has many looks, but in its simplest form, it’s driving a car over a preset path (called a “stage”) as quickly as possible.  A “rally” is comprised of numerous stages of varying lengths and varying levels of difficulty.  Everything is timed to the second…when you start a stage, when you arrive at a service point, how long your car can be serviced…everything.  Being late incurs time penalties.  Starting a stage early incurs penalties.

The driver with the lowest overall time wins.  Pretty simple.  Rallies can be run on gravel roads, sealed-surface roads, and roads covered in snow and ice, and the cars can reach 120+ mph.  Stage rallying is fabulous sport at any level, but at the top level – the World Rally Championship, or “WRC” as it’s known – “breathtaking” is the only word that comes to mind.  In this rarefied air, you can forget about Formula 1, NASCAR, and Indy.  Rally drivers are, without question, the best car-control experts on the planet.  Period.

And one of the best rally drivers was Richard Burns.  Born in Britain on January 17, 1971, his driving skills were noticed at a very early age.  He enrolled in a rally driving school at age 10(!), where his instructors were so impressed they suggested rallying as a career.  Burnsie listened, and by 1993 was the British Rally Champion.  The world stage beckoned.

Richard got “the call” in 1996 and drove at the top level through 2003.  In those years, he was employed by factory teams from Mitsubishi (’96-’98), Subaru (’99-’01), and Peugeot (’02-’03).  In just over 100 starts, he finished on the podium 34 times (including 10 wins), a very good percentage considering the challenges and the level of competition in those days.  He finished as the WRC’s runner-up in both 1999 and 2000, but took the top spot in 2001.

As his record indicates, Richard Burns was an extremely consistent driver, relying on sparing the car and solid finishes as much as outright speed and going for the victory.  The future was indeed bright for this car-control wizard…

…until a rare brain tumor took him from the sport as the 2003 season was ending.  Richard would fight his affliction for two years, before succumbing and leaving this life, his long-time co-driver Robert Reid, and all of his fans in November 2005 at just 34 years old.

There have been more successful drivers in the sport of rallying, and certainly more famous, but none rekindled my love for the sport like watching Richard Burns rip through the forests and hills of Finland in 1999, or watching his titanic battle with teammate (and rallying legend) Juha Kankkunen over Argentina’s stages that same year.  I get goosebumps thinking about it.

Rallying at the WRC level has really changed in the last 4 or 5 years and I don’t think it’s nearly the sport it was.  All the teams for which Richard Burns drove are no longer in the sport (Subaru having just departed after 2008), but the memories live on…in my mind and on video.

Happy Birthday Richard Burns!!

Recommended Viewing: Gobs of videos – They show not only the talent required to compete in this sport, they show the talent that Burnsie had.  Enjoy!!

Richard in Finland
Richard in Spain (Catalunya)
Richard in Argentina
Another of Richard’s battles with teammate Juha Kankkunen: 1999’s Rally Finland

Recommended Playing – Richard Burns Rally – It’s the best rallying sim to date.  It’s tough!!

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