Just when Hannu Mikkola might have felt he’d seen enough of the inside of an Audi for one year in 1984, he was asked to make one final trip. He was heading for Carson City.
What was it that brought the outgoing champion to Nevada 40 years ago this week? Simple, the opportunity to help land another title for the all-conquering quattro. Nestling among the Carson Range mountains, the city played host to the final round of the SCCA Pro Rally Championship.
Driving a quattro S1, Mikkola was in town to give his fellow Audi driver John Buffum a hand. Buffum had gone into the season looking odds-on for a successful title defense, but retirements on the Olympus and Press-on-Regardless rallies had cost him valuable points in the race against Mazda man Rod Millen. Victory on the penultimate event in Oregon narrowed the gap, but the RX-7 4WD was still ahead arriving at the event which ran on roads to the east of Lake Tahoe.
Audi needed to put cars between Buffum and Millen.
No stranger to the SCCA series, having won on his US debut at Press-on-Regardless the previous season, Mikkola was happy to help out.
Millen took first blood, leading on the stages around the city, but as soon as the event moved out onto the more desert-like gravel roads, the Finn started to assert his authority. Broken transmission forced Millen into retirement, while Mikkola and co-driver Doug Shepherd reeled off the fastest times to win by 11 minutes from the crown-clinching Buffum.
Mikkola’s wasn’t the only interesting entry in Nevada four decades ago this week, Mauro Pregliasco rocked a Michelotto-prepared Ferrari 308GTB. Sadly the Italian contingent departed with a broken driveshaft on the second stage.
