The Worst Group B Rally Crash (Portugal, 1986)

Group B rally lasted from 1982 to 1986. It was seen as one of the most exciting eras of racing the world has ever seen. There will never again be anything quite like it. Many consider it to be the best motoring series in history, and it’s not surprising looking back.

With unlimited boost, cars exceeding 600 horsepower and nothing between spectators and the tracks, Group B is still seen as one of the most exciting eras of racing to ever take place on planet earth. The cars which came out of the sport are downright legendary, and this four year period
Birthed some of the most significant automotive innovations in decades, especially thanks to the Audi Quattro.

With that all taken on board, there was of course one glaringly obvious downside, which eventually led to its demise. Group B rally was incredibly dangerous.
Now formula 1 back in the day had its own safety issues, unsurprisingly, but Group B was something to behold.

Spectators were all too happy to risk their lives to get as close as possible to the action, especially if they were equipped with cameras. It wasn’t just the fans that were causing problems though.
When you’ve got tracks like this, taken at breakneck speeds in cars like this,
Paired with the extremely competitive environment for drivers and engineers alike, it was going to end in disaster.

The most infamous Group B crash was Henri Toivonen’s in 1986, which ultimately ended Group B, but today we’re taking a look at another tragic crash which happened in the same year.
Many see this incident as being largely responsible for the end of Group B, with Toivonen’s being the final straw.

During the third round of the World Rally Championship in Portugal, near Sintra, a Portuguese driver by the name of Joaquim Santos was getting ready to show of his skills at the wheel of an RS200. Alongside him sat his codriver, Miguel Oliviera.
Tensions were high that day.
There was a very apparent issue which a number of drivers had already voiced concerns over.
The spectators were everywhere, and out of control.
The WRC had become massively popular over the few years prior, particularly in Portugal, and there were parts where it was downright impossible for the number of spectators to fit.
Given that one of the stages was in Sintra, just half an hour from Lisbon, Portugal’s capital, many of the drivers knew there was going to be trouble.
The route’s starting time had been adjusted recently, from running in the late afternoon and evening to 9:15 AM.
Before the first stage opened up, the Lagoa Azul, countless fans flooded in to get a good spot to watch the roughly three mile long stretch. It’s noted the stage was fairly straight as rally stages go, so the speeds the drivers would be able to reach were going to be considerably higher than average.

By the time quarter past 9 came round and the racing would begin, thousands of spectators had made their pilgrimage from far and wide. There were so many eager fans that the drivers knew they had merely inches to either side, which is just an impossible degree of tolerance to deal with.

Almost immediately after the racing began, the first sign of the imminent disaster waiting to happen came. A spectator with appalling judgement decided to run across the road, just as Rohrl’s Quattro sped towards him. The spectator was luckily not hit, but he narrowly escaped with his life, by a matter of millimetres.

Not too long afterwards, Timo Salonen hit a cameraman whilst driving a Peugeot 205. Luckily the collision didn’t end in a fatality, but the cameraman was pretty seriously injured, with a number of broken bones, and a decimated camera.
Generally, commenters blame neither the cameraman nor Salonen. He was effectively pushed onto the track from too many spectators cramming into the space behind him, leaving him forced to stand in the road. Salonen did manage to finish the stage, albeit with a pretty battered car.
Naturally, the crews were downright furious about the complete lack of organization and crowd control in place. Immediately after Salonen got to the end the officials received an earful, to which they presumably shrugged there shoulders because there was nothing they could do besides cancel the event.

Mere minutes after this all kicked off, Santos and Oliviera sped off the starting line in the RS200.
He’d had a ton of practice in the car, and Oliviera was his long time co-driver. With experience in the car and on the stage, he was eager to show what they were capable of.