The pomp and splendour of Bath’s Grand Pump Rooms must have seemed entirely fitting for such a moment – the celebration of Henri Toivonen becoming the youngest ever winner of the RAC Rally in 1980.
As the Finn fielded the collected media’s questions, shielded his eyes from the flash bulbs and allowed Talbot team boss Des O’Dell to refill his champagne glass one more time, an Englishman stood in the shadows and reflected on his own moment.
Paul White was, without a doubt, the unsung hero of the event. For the last day and a half as the RAC wound its way down from the Lakes through Wales and back down the M4 to Bath, White kept Toivonen cool, calm and entirely collected. For 31 stages, he managed the factory Sunbeam Lotus beautifully, guiding his 24-year-old driver to the history books as the then youngest ever winner of a World Rally Championship round.
White sadly passed away earlier this week.
Recognized as one of the finest co-drivers and team managers, it was little surprise that Paul was a man in demand when top-line drivers needed a Brit to take to the maps and guide them through their native forests. He started his first RAC Rally with Vic Preston Jr and his second with Markku Alén. A star-studded CV continued with Chris Sclater and Andrew Cowan for his next two starts.
Those four events had one thing in common, however: retirement.
The 1979 RAC came at the end of a season alongside Russell Brookes in an Andrews Heat for Hire-liveried Escort RS1800. They’d finished third on the Gwynedd, second on the Welsh and won the Manx.
The RAC started gently with a sensible approach to the Sunday spectator stages, but through Yorkshire, Kielder and into the Scottish Borders, the pair moved into third place and were up to second when Ari Vatanen hit trouble in Hafren. While Hannu Mikkola’s Escort was too far down the road to chase, Brookes and White held Timo Salonen’s Datsun at bay to take what was then a career best result for each.
Twelve months on and second became first for Paul. Working as Talbot’s team manager, he knew Toivonen and was happy to step and co-drive the Sunbeam to fourth on the Welsh earlier in the season.
The RAC was the big one, however. Bigger valves and some other tweaks to the Lotus motor had given the Sunbeam an additional 15bhp, but it was still hard to see past Ford’s Finns Mikkola and Vatanen.
Yorkshire and County Durham were good to White and Toivonen, with stages win in Wykeham, Hamsterley and Stang edging them into a provisional podium position. But Swedes Anders Kullang and Björn Waldegård remained just ahead. When the former suffered a pair of rear punctures on his Opel Ascona 400 and the latter hit engine trouble aboard his Toyota Celica, the Finnish-British alliance was out front. But not out of danger. Recovering from an opening-day excursion, Mikkola was only two minutes down when the event headed south.
White's final season of professional competition was 1985, alongside Mikael Sundström
It was through the second half of the 1980 RAC that both White and Toivonen made their names and carved their legends.
White continued to compete into the 1980s and enjoyed a season of mixed fortunes alongside Mikael Sundström in two very different Peugeot 205s – the GTi and the T16. The end of that 1985 season was the end of Paul’s professional competition career.
Paul will be remembered as an absolute professional with a very personal touch; his humility and unassuming nature were as much part of him as his steely determination to win.
DirtFish sends its deepest sympathies to his family and many friends around the world.
