Pentti Airikkala, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetPentti Airikkala
rally driver, competed in World Rally Championship events in Finland, Sweden, and the UK
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
About Pentti Airikkala
- Pentti Airikkala (4 September 1945 – 30 September 2009) was one of the "Flying Finns" who dominated world rallying in the past four decades.
- His career was more sporadic than many of his contemporaries, and he competed in only three World Rally Championship (WRC) events regularly; the two Scandinavian rallies (the 1000 Lakes and the Swedish Rally) and the RAC Rally in the United Kingdom. Airikkala was born in Helsinki, Finland.
- Most of his top flight competitive experience was behind the wheel of various rear wheel drive Vauxhall/Opels like the Chevette HS and Magnum coupé, but his greatest success came in the twilight of his career, when he won the 1989 RAC Rally in a Group A Mitsubishi Galant VR-4.
- He is still the third oldest driver to win a WRC event. Altogether he competed in 36 WRC events between 1973 and 1990, and a 37th in 2003, scoring 102 points and achieving a best of 9th overall in the 1981 Drivers' Championship.
- He also contested the British Rally Championship in the 1970s/80s, becoming British Rally Champion in 1979.
- Since retiring from full-time international competition he operated a highly successful rally driving school in Oxfordshire teaching left-foot braking, where his roster of pupils included subsequent World Champions Colin McRae and Richard Burns.
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