Rauno Aaltonen’s untold love affair with WRC Safari Rally

Rauno Aaltonen, the legendary Finnish rally driver, who has been part of the Safari Rally folklore for the last 61 years, returned to Kenya early last month on a private visit to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the iconic African classic motorsport event.

He was feted, planted a commemorative tree at the WRC Safari Rally Secretariat at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani Stadium, received his Legends Trophy, tasted beer and drank a lot of Kenyan coffee, and very much felt at home in a country he says he loves so much.

The 85-year-old former flying Finn, skier and para-glider, author, rally driving instructor who can still drive at crazy speeds of 200kph.

On his visit to Kenya to held public lectures, autographed old pictures for young and old people, and drove for 3,000km through some of the roads he competed on for  23 years.

Rauno Aaltonen’s first visit to Kenya was conceived on a chance encounter at an airport.

Sometime on a chilly day in February1962, young Aaltonen was going home to Finland through Orly Airport in Paris after spending one week at Princess Grace Hospital in Monte Carlo following an accident at the Monte Carlo Rall.

 “In the passport queue at Paris Orly Airport, I looked and saw this very beautiful lady in front of me who created an interest.

“So I went closer at passport control, looked over her shoulders and she had a passport which had Kenya, And I thought, ‘this is interesting.’ So after passport control, I went to this lady and introduced myself, and said that I had just come from hospital after I rolled my Mini in Rally Monte Carlo. We were lying second outright 3km from the finish in the last stage.

“It was a driver’s mistake, as it always happens. I didn’t stay on the road but I rolled anyway.”

The lady looked up bemused before she replied: “Interesting. I am the Secretary of Safari Rally.”

Continued Aaltonen: “Her name was Diana Howard Willams. We didn’t have much time, maybe less than five minutes and she asked me ‘Would you like to drive in the Safari Rally,‘ and I said, ‘yes’. She told me that I would hear from her.

“Two weeks later there was a letter which said D.T.Dobie was willing to give a Mercedes 220 SEV for me to drive in the Safari. All I had to do was finance an air ticket which was not difficult.

“So that was in 62.”

Aaltonen was then one of the fastest-rising drivers in the world from Finland and an emerging member of the original ‘Flying Finns’ lineage, a tradition which has produced some of the best rally drivers in history.

World champion Kalle Rovanpera, 23, is the latest from this production line.
One thing led to another, and Aaltonen arrived in Kenya two months later and was taken under the care of Jim Heather Hayes.

“We did recce on some parts of the route. Not all of it. Jim taught me about the specialties of the Safari which many people to this day don’t seem to know. So I remained in his house.”

Aaltonen remains grateful to Howard and Hayes for helping him fast-track his dream of competing in the East African Safari Rally after years of following the event in magazines back home.

This blast from the past was rated to his legion of fans at a reception held for him at Tamarind Hotel in Nairobi on September 30 on his first visit to Kenya in 35 years, and was arranged by his host, veteran navigator and administrator Surinder Thatthi.

Aaltonen continued to rapt attention:  “Against the wishes of my father who was one of the fastest Finnish motorbike riders before the start of the Second World War I got interested in Enduro more than speedways or asphalt tracks driving in forests because I found something special.

“Now this love to drive between trees and through big holes in a way created interest in the Safari and many others looked into all possible magazines about the Safari and that is how I came to learn of the Safari.”

Aaltonen teamed up with Peter Goode and was drawn far down the field in position 79 in the 1962 East African Safari Rally in a Mercedes 220 SEV.

By the time the cards reached Nakuru, the Safari Rally rookie had taken the lead  before he wrong-slotted and incurred 50 points penalty.

“Then it rained heavily and I got stuck in Emburu Escarpment. And we couldn’t get the car out until I deflated the rear tyres. We lost so much time and were out in the next time control.”

 Was he disappointed?  “No!"

“I must do it again,” he continued to narrate his story. “I loved the Safari. It was long enough. I loved it like the Spar-Sophia-Liege Rally which started in Belgium close to the Atlantic Ocean and went to Sophia near the Black Sea and back. We stopped in Sophia for four hours. I liked the marathon races from then and won it in 1964.”

Thus began an association with the Safari Rally which lasted for 23 years until 1987.

He was signed by 11 manufacturers teams in his career but in the Safari he drove for Morris Mini, Lancia, Datsun, Ford, BMC, and Opel. He never won despite his top billing.

It also took him seven years to finish his first Safari in 1969,placing ninth in a Lancia Fulvia, navigated by Henry Liddon of Britain.

Aaltonen holds the most number of second places finishes -- four. He also placed third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

He also developed a long-lasting relationship with his navigator Lofty Drews, and last competed in the Monte Carlo Historique Rally three years ago aged 82 in a Mini.

“The most interesting thing is keeping your mind on the job," Aaltonen said flicking through corners with the practised ease of 70 years.

He became one of the most visible, and admired Safari Rally driver of all only rivalled by locals Joginder Singh, Shekhar Mehta, Vic Preston Junior and Patrick Njiru in post-independent Kenya.

If Kenyan fans ever prayed, they included Aaltonen in their prayers for victory which inexplicably eluded him.

Ordinary men would have given up or fallen into depression but the Finn from Turku didn’t. He was, and has always been guided by a principal founded by the Romans 2000 years ago.

“A friend had a big painting on the wall of his house that read: “Winning is Not Everything. Winning is the Only Thing,” he replied to a question posed by Anne Teith, the first woman national champion (1984) driving an Opel Ascona she bought from Aaltonen after that year's Safari Rally.

She wanted to know which Safari edition he came closest to winning or ever had any regrets.

“My principal is Non-Os Ostra, what the Roman said 2,000 years ago that means ‘Only the Best is Good Enough’, and that means my principal of doing the,” best I can and if not then bad luck.”

But that was not the case in 1981. A young fan wanted him to settled matters on his relationship with his  teammate, the late Shekhar Mehta and Datsun team management that year.

By then he had become a regular driver for Nissan/Datsun since their first association in 1971 with the fast and powerful Datsun 240Z. He gifted the Japanese manufacturer a second in 1977 in a 160J, third in 1978 and another second in 1980.

But it is in the 1981 edition that Aaltonen and Shekhar Mehta famously tussled for the title until the end.

Here is the version of Aaltonen: “There were people who had placed a lot of money on Shekhar to win and they were ready to do whatever they could. The road book was ignored to my disadvantage despite a glaring error. There was one section which was longer by 10km but was not indicated in the road book.”

Aaltonen submitted that a timed section of the rally course on which he lost 34 minutes was actually 10km longer.

The matter was brought to the attention of the Datsun team boss Takashi Wakabayashi who issued team orders barring Aaltonen from challenging Mehta as the rally headed home.

He issued team orders seeking a 1-2 finish. But Aaltonen could not hear any of this. Mehta drove off in the next stage after Isiolo but Aaltonen caught up with him, overtook and blocked the road. Mehta pushed the Finn to the ditch.

It was no longer a race but a road brawl which prompted Aaltonen to employ his defensive driving techniques which he was teaching at BMW and Mini factories five years earlier.

"I am the fastest and best anti-terrorism driver in the world,” said Aaltonen with a trembling voice. I knew how to handle Mehta and I went back to the road faster than he could respond and took over the road, deliberately breaking or accelerating giving him no room but to ram my car from behind.

"I knew by hitting my car would suffer superficial damage while he risked losing many things including the radiator."

"We both arrived at the next stage and Mehta reported me to Wakabayashi crying I had damaged his car. He issued a final order that did not favour me.”

Mehta was declared the winner at the end but Aaltonen lodged a protest and the jury initially upheld his protest which was based on two technicalities and declared him the winner.

Aaltonen submitted that a timed section of the rally course on which he lost 34 minutes, was actually longer by 10km than listed on the road book and that all penalties for the section should therefore be cancelled.

He argued that Mehta lost 12 minutes after being held back by a swelling river in which Aaltonen had already passed. The section was nullified and results did not count.

Mehta appealed and was reinstated before Aaltonen made yet another appeal to the FIA in Paris which took seven months before it was thrown out and Mehta was declared the winner.

“I left Datsun after that and Mehta and I were never friends again. But that is now water under the bridge," he added philosophically.

“One thing in rallying is we are not fighting against enemies. We have opposition but we are friends. We are like a family.”

Aaltonen was a rally instructor for a long time at the Aaltonen Motorsport Ice Driving High-Performance School in Turku School until he folded it after reaching 80.

He is known the world over as the “Rally professor” for a reason. He perfected the left-foot braking and other skills that transform rookies into experts with time.

But what made Aaltonen such a sort after driver who drove every prototype BMW before mass production in testing?

“We Finns don’t believe in corners on the road like Germans. When they see a corner, Germans slow and look where they should go.

"In Finland the principle is the road must go on. There is no point in slowing down and stop and the only way to do is to put a car sideways and this principle I learnt in Finland when approaching a corner you first turn right or left and then left or right. The tail for the car swings on nicely because the tyres in the rear make no force then shift and go using the left foot,” said Aaltonen.

With all this knowledge when will he write a book, inquired Silvia King, Teith's long-time navigator.

“I have written a couple of books and I am the only writer in motorsports without a ghostwriter to have written a best seller, "Cold Revolution on the Steering" which sold 124,000 copies in Germany.”

Aaltonen reckons the old Safari cannot be compared with the current one.

“The only similarity is that they both start in Nairobi. It is like comparing mother and daughter. And it is not possible to organise the old Safari because of population growth. The point is that old-time races can’t be made in Kenya. It’s quite clear the world has changed and Kenya has changed. There are two races to compare to the Safari. One is La Carrere Pan Americana Liege which I won in 1964.

What are the chances of a black African driver becoming a world champion?

“Why not? He should be six to seven years old and have a chance to play with good cars. It is a background like that of Lewis Hamilton. I had such a life. I started driving when I was six and I have been driving since."