RAC RALLY 1980

RAC RALLY 1980
This amateur 8mm Cine film shows my memories of this iconic rally which started form Bath in 1980

Henri Toivonen became, at 24, the youngest winner of a world rally championship event (that is if we regard 1973 as being year zero, otherwise Simo Lampinen would still hold the record even today by winning the 1963 1000 Lakes aged just 20) on the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally driving the Talbot Sunbeam-Lotus.
Some say he was fortunate, being gifted the rally after the punctures that befell Anders Kullang's Ascona 400 in Grizedale, and the retirement of Waldegard's Toyota Celica GT. Also, Hannu Mikkola being unable to catch him in the Eaton Yale Escort due to having a lesser tyre (Dunlop) for that event compared to Toivonen's Michelins. But despite these claims the event still marked out Toivonen as a future great and potential world champion, which surely he would have been in 1986 but for tragic circumstances.
The 1980 RAC also hit the headlines with Tony Pond's visit to the lion enclosure at Longleat Safari Park. The TR7 slid through a fence and hit the lions feeding trough, smashing the car's windscreen and losing Pond over three minutes. Rally Buzz