Finnish favourites

Press, 29 June 1985, Page 80

Finnish favourites

PA Auckland The odds are stacked precariously in favour of the Finnish rally aces, Timo Salonen and Ari Vatanen, for the AWA Clarion Rally of New Zealand beginning in Auckland today. They will drive 205 Turbo 16s Peugeots, state-of-the-art four-wheel-drive machines that have dominated international rallies this year. The Finns’ strongest rivals realise the streak is weakening, however. Vatanen’s unprecedented run of five world manufac-

turers’ round wins in a row ended in March with a breakdown in the Rally of Portugal. Since then he’s suffered one retirement, with another breakdown and two more due to crashes. But former Nissan driver, Salonen, aged 33, took over to extend the car’s record. He won both the Portugal and Acropolis rallies, proving the car’s superiority and his driving skills. With two thirds and a seventh place in other rallies, he has a handy 18-point lead in the world drivers’ championship. if

He has the added advantage of having driven in five previous New Zealand rallies, winning one and never placing worse than fourth. He is not hiding the fact that he’s a very happy man going into tomorrow’s rally. Vatanen, also aged 33, and once world champion, is said to have mellowed from his former fiery, living-dan-gerously style, shown so well here eight years ago when he crashed spectacularly — and still raced his patched-up Escort into second place against a class Fiat team.