Rally Legend Down

Anyone of a certain age will remember his heroics in lardy Galants on
the RAC in the late 80s. Those of an older age will probably remember
his heroics in Chevettes.

Sadly, Pentti Arikkala passed away long before his time today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentti_Airikkala

 

I do indeed remember watching him at the RAC in the 80's. Which reminds
me that in 41 days time it will be the Roger Albert Clark Rally 2009.
Looks like being Langdale on the Saturday for our outing.

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The name only rings a bell because Clarkson claimed to have fitted the
turbo from said rallyist's car to his Mitsubishi Starrion on Top
Gear...

 

How?

I've got a picture somewhere of his driving me around the Ford Rallye Team
test track at Boreham in the Autoglass Sierra Cosworth, the week before he
put it into a tree in the (year?) RAC Rally.

He was very cool and calm among the chaos, both in the car at speed and in
the scrum with the motor press.

 

Prostate cancer, poor fucker.

 

That's a bastard. He trialled his teaching techniques on a bunch of us
motorclubbies in Devon, you know. We did a weekend in a forest,
listening to his advice, then driving him around a short circular stage
trying to put it into practice - then endured his piss-taking as we were
all shite. Then he loaded the car with as many people as would get in
it and showed us how it was done as many times as we could go round
without puking on each other.

He was absolutely insistent that we did certain "thinks" certain ways -
spin the wheel this way, hammer the brakes on that way: absolutely
adamant about bollock size: "If you can't see a reason to lift off, keep
it fokkin flat out" and "Don't brake yet, you fokkin fairy, wait till
you need to - then brake for your fokkin life, man".

And everybody, without exception, got first a bollocking and then rapped
over the knuckles or punched in the left thigh for slipping a thumb
inside the steering wheel: "Easy way to break your fokkin thumb, dat,
man".

We got better over the weekend and all of us had the "Scandy Flick" down
pat by the Sunday afternoon. He got quite jovial then, especially as
even the fastest lads couldn't get within 10% of his time. "You be
doing comink bakk in four weekses times, and showing me how you are
gettink better", he cried as we left.

We got a phone call postponing our return trip, but eight weeks after
the initial bash, we went again.

We were greeted by a rather quiet Pentti, not the ebullient character of
the first time round. He was wearing a pair of outsize red gloves,
which he kept on all morning - during the blackboard session, in the
cars and even for teabreak. Lunch got the better of him though and he
had to take the gloves off to eat a pasty. He had a heavily bandaged
thumb, see: broke it, didn't he - the wheel kicked back on him on a
stony stage and he'd let his thumb slip in beside the spoke. Hah!

He still took a car round on the Sunday morning though, but we all got
with 10% of his time when he was driving one-handed and couldn't really
give the handbrake a good one.

He was a top geezer - he took the ribbing and the thumb jokes very well
and he was still fokkin fast on the loose. A proper character, without
whom motorsport is poorer.

 

I just *knew* you'd have a story about him.

One of my heroes back in the day, along with Jimmy McRae and Ari
Vatanen.

 

Bad form, but just re-read the post.

I was taught how to drive on the track by a Scandanavian - not a rally
bloke, but he's won the Castle Combe Special GT Championship a few
times. He was exactly the same.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Pip

I want to be you when I fail to grow up.

 

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 21:10:08 +0100, (SteveH)
said

:~(

Youtube tribute here... Music is a bit overblown (and I can't remember
where it's from) but good to watch:

 

TBH I don't think it does him justice. My memories are of him sideways
at impossible speeds through Kielder, Hamsterly and the Lakes.

 

I think all of the Scandies of that era were the same - they grew up
looking at Erik Carlsson and Stig Blomqvist, thinking they could be just
like them. They all seemed to be out of the same mould, going as fast
as the car would go, braking (generally with the left foot) far too late
and swinging the car sideways to scrub off unlikely amounts of speed,
then exiting the corner at a somewhat unlikely angle, still travelling
improbably fast.

Or ending their rally imitating their childhood heroes: wearing scenery,
inverted in a ditch or with a savagely broken car - you can only operate
in defiance of the laws of physics for a limited time.

 

We were just a couple of bends away up the stage in Kielder in 1990 when
he crashed out in the Sierra - IIRC? I certainly remember the driving
between stages that year - in the Alfa 75 V6 with my old mate
'navigating'.

Proper rallys they were in those days.

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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster [ SPACE ! ] Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
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Indeed. Jumpers for marshalls' posts ...

 

On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:23:57 +0100, Colin Irvine

Everything else I turned up on a quick search had lots of other
drivers in.

I consider myself lucky to have a hut, from the things I'm told. Not
that I've done rally marshalling.. I was thinking about it for next
year but talking to some "refugees" put me off a bit.

 

It's always struck me as a pretty thankless job. Too many people seem
to object to anyone they perceive to be telling them what to do, and
don't realise how much they can slow a driver down.

 

You get too many chav spectators at rallys now. All went downhill when
they stopped running through the night. It was a privilege to be able to
watch in the days of the group B cars and yet some forest stages were
still free entry ,or just a modest car parking fee. Most spectators were
proper enthusiasts, didn't usually need telling where not to stand and
didn't mind moving if asked to. Now the punters pay per head they expect
burger vans and bogs everywhere and to stand where they please.

Actually, the DeLacy R.A.C. is still a bit like things used to be, well
worth a trip to watch the SO rally cars.


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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster [ SPACE ! ] Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

On Sat, 3 Oct 2009 14:24:55 +0100, Pete Fisher

snip>

I've never been interested in going to a rally and I'm pretty certain
I'll never go to one but if the organisers take my money then I expect
to have certain 'facilities' available to me. Why should anyone have
to pay money to view motorsport and then be expected to go and shit in
the woods?

 

No, but I would expect to be given something resembling a guide
telling me where the prohibited areas were when I paid for my ticket.

I don't know how they mark the areas where you're not allowed to stand
but if it's all a bit vague and left to marshalls to deal with then I
can understand someone getting a bit moody when they're told to move.
If they can manage to sort it out on the IoM where you don't pay for a
ticket then surely it can't be that difficult at an event where you're
charging an admission fee?

In these days where almost all sports are fully professional you've
got to accept that the drivers wages are paid for by the spectators
and if the spectators don't want to pay a reasonable price then the
event goes elsewhere.

It's progress.

 

On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:03:45 +0100, Marc

snip>

I think you'll find it belongs to the sponsors and they can do
whatever they want with it.