Pauli Toivonen

Pauli Toivonen Born August 22 1929 in Jyväskylä, Finland, Died February 14 2005 was a Finnish rally car driver. He drove for Citroën, Lancia and Porsche and had many successes to his credit. Pauli was the father of Harri and Henri Toivonen.

Whilst Pauli Toivonen was mainly known for driving rally cars, he also drove for Porsche in World Endurance Sports car races and in the 24 Hours at Le Mans in Renault Alpines.

Toivonen was awarded a controversial first place on the 1966 Monte Carlo Rally after a protest by the Citroën team manager against the top finishing British cars. As a result, the top three placing Minis of Timo Mäkinen, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk and Roger Clark's 4th place Ford Cortina were disqualified. The reason given by rally officials was that the headlamp bulbs were not homologated following a last minute rule change. Toivonen was so embarrassed that he boycotted the post-rally awards ceremony and never drove for Citroën again.

As a result, Pauli did not brag about his victory in the prestigious Monte Carlo rally because he felt he had not deserved the victory. However, when his son, Henri came first the same event twenty years later - this time in a convincing manner - Pauli was heard to say: "Now the name of Toivonen has been cleared."

Pauli was European Rally champion in 1968 and won four other events for Porsche in the same year.

Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto (his co-driver) both died when their Lancia left the road and caught fire during the 1986 Tour de Corse. Henri was just 29 years old - having achieved more in his short life than most rally drivers manage in their entire careers.

Notable Victories

External links

*it [http://www.henritoivonen.it/ Site dedicated Henri Toivonen]
*http://www.flyingfinns.com/toiv_p.htm