Lombard RAC Rally 1980: Henri Toivonen becomes the youngest WRC event winner in the Talbot Sunbeam-Lotus

Henri Toivonen became, at 24, the youngest winner of a world rally championship event (that is if we regard 1973 as being year zero, otherwise Simo Lampinen would still hold the record even today by winning the 1963 1000 Lakes aged just 20) on the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally driving the Talbot Sunbeam-Lotus.

Some say he was fortunate, being gifted the rally after the punctures that befell Anders Kullang's Ascona 400 in Grizedale, and the retirement of Waldegard's Toyota Celica GT. Also, Hannu Mikkola being unable to catch him in the Eaton Yale Escort due to having a lesser tyre (Dunlop) for that event compared to Toivonen's Michelins. But despite these claims the event still marked out Toivonen as a future great and potential world champion, which surely he would have been in 1986 but for tragic circumstances.

The 1980 RAC also hit the headlines with Tony Pond's visit to the lion enclosure at Longleat Safari Park. The TR7 slid through a fence and hit the lions feeding trough, smashing the car's windscreen and losing Pond over three minutes.

Then John Lyons from Castlederg, Co. Tyrone, driving a Polonez, crashed into spectators (all subsequently recovered from their injuries) after swerving to avoid a person, who had fallen down a bank onto the road on the Bramham spectator stage. Not only with all that drama from the first day, but Englishman Tim Brise in a Ford Escort RS actually led the rally, briefly, until  his retirement caused by an electrical fault.

The real headlines though belonged to Toivonen, and the Des O'Dell Talbot team who also claimed 3rd and 4th places with Frequelin and Brookes (in a MLP run car) respectively.

Video clip 1980 Lombard RAC Rally uploaded by dgr64

Lombard RAC Rally 1980 Top Ten Results

Final Classification courtesy juwra.com 

Source: RAC Rally 1932-1986 by Maurice Hamilton

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