Juha Kankkunen

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Juha Kankkunen
World Rally Championship record
Nationality	Finnish
Active years	1979 - 2002
Teams	Toyota, Peugeot, Lancia, Ford, Subaru, Hyundai
World rallies	161
Championships	4 (1986, 1987, 1991, 1993
Wins	23
Podium finishes	75
Stage wins	700
Points	1136
First world rally	1979 1000 Lakes Rally
First win	1985 Safari Rally
Last win	1999 Neste Rally Finland
Last world rally	2002 Rally Great Britain
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Juha Kankkunen (pronunciation (help·info)), born in Laukaa, Finland on April 2, 1959, made his name principally as a rally car driver. Aided partly by his record of 23 career victories on individual world rallies, he went on to drive Peugeot (1986), Lancia (1987 and 1991) and Toyota (1993) cars to four World Rally Championship driver's titles. Drivers such as Sébastien Loeb, Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae have since overtaken the mark set by Kankkunen for record number of individual rally victories. However, only fellow compatriot and 1996-1999 World Champion Tommi Mäkinen has thus far been successful in matching his tally of driver's world titles over the course of an entire career in the sport.

Post-retirement in 2002, Kankkunen announced his intention to enter politics, echoing the career path of rallying compatriot Ari Vatanen.

Since 2007 Kankkunen holds the World Speed Record on Ice in a Bentley Continental GT.

[edit] Career

Kankkunen grew up on his family's farm near Jyväskylä and has since claimed to have driven both a car and a tractor by the age of seven.

From 1983 to 1985, he drove the Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo TA64, the motor which was to deliver him his first win on the Safari Rally in 1985, on his first attempt, and as a 100-1 outsider. It was such a display of competence that was to earn him his chance to come to the fore with dominant 1985 manufacturers' and drivers' champions Peugeot for 1986, which he duly seized in world driver's championship-winning style - for all the evident distraction for fans of the macabre backdrop before them of title rival Henri Toivonen perishing aboard his Lancia while leading the Corsican round of the series in May, which in turn made for the final banishment to posterity of the Group B category.

Despite winning a second consecutive world title on switching to the Lancia team for the opening of proceedings in the promoted Group A category in 1987, Kankkunen's uneasy acceptance of team-orders designed to benefit the 'Italian hero in an Italian car', Miki Biasion (such as on his very first outing with the team, that season's Monte Carlo Rally) pre-empted a move elsewhere for 1988.

That happened with Kankkunen providing the debut for the Celica GT-Four ST165 on that season's Tour de Corse, although he was to be made to wait until the 1989 Rally Australia to be able to score the first victory with this car. He duly reverted his earlier move in order to reacquaint himself with Lancia at the turn of the decade where, in 1991, he become the first man to seal a third driver's title since the World Rally Championship's 1973 inauguration.

On rejoining Toyota in 1993, on the back of a second place finish to Carlos Sainz in the series in 1992 in his last chance to drive a factory Delta Integrale before the team's voluntary withdrawal, Kankkunen stormed to a fourth world title, despite having to fare from mid-season with two substitute co-drivers after his original in-car partner, Juha Piironen suffered a stroke. Kankkunen won 1993 Rally Argentina with his new co-driver, Nicky Grist. In the 1000 Lakes Rally of Finland, he was paired with Frenchman Denis Giraudet. Back with Nicky Grist, Kankkunen won the Rally Australia and the RAC Rally. With his 5 victories, and 2 others from his team mates, Toyota, with the Celica GT-Four ST185, won the 1993 manufacturers' crown, the first for a Japanese manufacturer.

In 1994, Kankkunen won the Rally TAP Portugal with ST185, and finished 2nd in Rally Australia on the first appearance of ST205.

Sadly for Kankkunen, this relationship also went somewhat awry eventually, for with the Finn still at the team during 1995 Toyota were found guilty of the implementation of illegal turbo restrictor bypasses on their Toyota Celica ST205 cars. At the discretion of the FIA's Max Mosley Toyota were subject to a public humiliation, and duly banned from the World Championship until 1997. Part of the Finn's rehabilitation from this episode came in the shape of Ford Motor Company, who took him on to replace a disappointing Armin Schwarz mid-way through 1997. He stayed, clocking up many podium finishes in the newly-refettled M-Sport outfit's Escort WRC until the end of 1998, when Kankkunen left, understandably - given previous experiences - unwilling to chance possible subordinate status to new superstar signing Colin McRae.

Kankkunen has driven for, in addition to the aforementioned teams, Subaru and Hyundai. His tenure at the former included a brace of victories in 1999 in the Impreza WRC, his first since the last of his championship-winning years albeit minus the same final result. At the Rally Argentina, he was to famously - and controversially - upstage victor-elect Richard Burns to win amid a team-order wrangle, triggering the singular remark from Burns's co-driver Robert Reid, that "wherever there's a Finn, there's a shark."

Accompanying achievements include winning the 4-wheel class at the Dakar Rally in 1988. He also won the 1988 and 1991 Race of Champions.

Kankkunen, a Flying Finn himself, was one of the shareholders in the Flying Finn airline.

[edit] World Speed Record on Ice

In early 2007 Kankkunen set a new World Speed Record on Ice in a Bentley Continental GT on the frozen Baltic sea near Oulu. He averaged 321.6km/h or 199.86MPH in both directions on the "flying kilometer", reaching a maximum speed of 331km/h or 207MPH. Previously the record was 296km/h held by a Bugatti EB110 Supersport. The Bentley was largely standard except a roll-cage, some aerodynamic improvements and low-temperature fuel and calibration. Tires were from Nokian with spikes. Apparently there was some technical support by Nokian and Bentley Motors.

[edit] External links

• Juha Kankkunen Driving Academy