At 47 years old, Rauno Aaltonen must have wondered what more he had to do. He’d done this event 22 times, finished second on four occasions and led countless times. For the last three years, it was his only World Rally Championship start of the season as a factory Opel driver.
But still, no win.
And now this. His countryman – the one standing on the top step of the podium – was three when Aaltonen first competed on the Safari Rally. And now, 22 years later, he’s won it at his first attempt.
No wonder Juha Kankkunen looked a touch bashful when he reached out to shake Aaltonen’s hand at the conclusion of the 1985 event. Back then, nobody won the Safari on their debut.
Nobody except Kankkunen.
Africa wasn’t a complete mystery to the younger of the two Finns. Since joining Toyota earlier in 1983, he was entered on that year’s Ivory Coast Rally in a Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo. As team junior, his task was very much to get ahead of team-mates Björn Waldegård and Per Eklund and then report back on conditions. He did that for close to 400 miles before an electrical fault put him out.
In Kenya for the first time two years later, Kankkunen was nervous. Waldegård had won this event 12 months ago and, if it stayed dry, Toyota was counted among the favorites – even against all-wheel drive superpowers Audi and Peugeot.
Then it rained. And then as now, little prepares you for African rain.
“It was like ice,” smiled Kankkunen at the memory.
He had started 21st and last of the Group B cars and, as the rain fell and the roads offered less and less resistance, he began to get overtaken by locals. When five-time Safari winner Shekhar Mehta’s Nissan 240 RS powered by the Toyota, Kankkunen had a plan.
“If anybody knew how to drive those roads, it was him,” he said.
Kankkunen never expected to be so fast
Kankkunen pushed on and stuck with Mehta until the Nissan slid into the bushes. Not far down the road, the Celica was having issues of its own as he slid off the road into a water-filled ditch in first gear. Having persuaded the locals to haul the TCT out, Kankkunen and Fred Gallagher elected for an even more cautious approach.
Three things happened then: the rain stopped and Peugeot and Audi hit trouble. The six-speed gearbox on the Sport quattro wasn’t working as it should have been, forcing the German manufacturer to withdraw two cars and focus on Hannu Mikkola and Stig Blomqvist. Both retired, the former with an engine fault, the latter with a blown gearbox.
The 1985 event was Peugeot’s maiden voyage in the 205 T16. Ari Vatanen departed with a head gasket failure and Tim Salonen finished a distant seventh.
Up front, something very special was happening. Kankkunen takes up the story.
“Really,” he said, “I had no idea what was coming. No idea at all. I was 25. Just a boy. I had heard talk about this being the toughest rally in the world. The old boys then, they were not saying so much, but when we did the recce I was lucky to be together with Björn and, of course, our team principal was Ove Andersson, who had also won this event in 1975.
“I was taking good advice from them, and then the driving came surprisingly good. I came to the top and stayed there. I just kept the same speed and, suddenly, the others were having little problems and then I realized I am leading by half an hour!
Kankkunen dreamed of being a rally driver and rallying in Kenya
“When I was growing up, definitely it was one of my dreams to be a rally driver and to compete in Kenya. When I won this rally, it wasn’t just my first win – it was also my first podium in the world championship. This was a really special moment for me. I couldn’t believe it had happened. Even when I went home, I still had to think about it for one day: ‘Did I really win?’
“One thing is sure, it really was the toughest event. It still is tough today, but back in 1985 we were having some more miles and, of course, it was open road. We did more than 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) of competition. We had one section called the pipeline road which had a straight for 30 kilometers (18 miles).
“The first day I drove in the Safari, we headed down to Mombasa from Nairobi and did 700 kilometers (434 miles) of stages. I had never done anything like it in my life.
“Before this event in 1985, I had never been to Kenya before we started the test that year. I have been back many times since. I like the place a hell of a lot and to come here and win again as a team principal – 40 years on. This is something special.”
And Aaltonen sadly never did manage to add a Safari win to an exceptional CV which boasted both a 1000 Lakes and RAC success.
