Toivonen's corner - Group B rallying's tragic mystery

[Applause] but there is absolutely no stopping Henri Toivonen Sergio Cresto was slowly pulling away from Bruno Saby corners in all of motorsport really certainly in world running this is the court a stage were high above court a Ponte Vecchio down there 33 years ago only the second 1986 Henri Toivonen associate crest they bought their lancia delta s4 down this flat out approach so what is a tightening left-hander here and they didn't make the corner they went straight on through calling this this really is one of the most poignant corners in all of world rallying isn't it yeah you might argue motorsport all of world motorsport David it's a corner that changed the face of rallying really isn't it you know I was talking now 33 years ago but you know it's for an awful lot of people you know Henri Toivonen was he was like a rock star of rallying wasn't he was a rally God coming you certainly get we had something different about him didn't the end it would have been world champion that yeah I'm pretty sure even and it sent shock waves around the world of rallying and it changed rallying because really that was more or less that and the accident porch Lords the end of the group group birra I wasn't you know within days of the championship leaving the island here in Corsica jean-marie Balestra had made the decision you know Group B would end and there be no group s and and yeah you're right you know the Portugal accident was huge but so much of that came from from what happened to Henri Toivonen and so gen crest though just just here down there not an awful lot has changed here's obviously this wall is new there was no wall here no 33 years ago but you know what shrouded in mystery isn't it you know no one really can see as yet what happened and I think it must be very difficult for an awful lot of people particularly the family you know not to know exactly what happened and probably know never to know exactly what happened now the only one thing that we've seen pictures from around that time exactly that day after the accident we were talking to Martin Holmes yeah fabulous journalist who's been around a lot longer than you and I and he walked up from from the finish back down the road walked four kilometres back up to this point and I think by then they've got the car out yeah but the the trees down now a lot of these trees have grown up in the last 33 years obviously but the trees were still burning when Martin arrived on the scene here card on the car had gone yeah but he got a picture of there were some skid marks just just after the apex of the corner so he made some attempt of making the corner right well we're sitting I think the corner slightly tightens in walk but there were no really hard heavy braking marks at all and he'd just gone straight on straight through there and this is what adds to the mystery that surrounds it you know there's an awful lot to talk about the card listen we know the group because there were beasts you know homologated anything up to 600 horsepower if you turned the boost up all for 700 horsepower that kind particular was very very difficult to drive he was leading the rally though with a good lead but yeah at all and then we know as well Bruno Saby was second through the stage in his Peugeot he came down the road it's a very very quick approach to this tightening left-hander super quick with a kind of a I think it's a it's a right-hand kink that would probably be flat on on big sticky slick tires so they had sabe had come past and he'd seen a fire down there but obviously there was no SOS board there was no triangles and no obvious as you see signs on the road you had to really look to see there because there was no wall so nothing yeah I don't know if you can see that the road goes right round that the sort of head of that small valley there and I think it was as he'd got to the other side over there he looked down and he could see there was something wrong it was not right so he actually turned around absolutely no no to drive the wrong way so you can only imagine what must have been going through his mind to think I've got to turn around and they obviously very quickly realized the severity of the situation did not he got back to here and not long after that Miki blz almost third car in and they both stopped and that was the point where they discovered it was him and that was the point the tragic point where does the honesty of the arrow be as NIAMS co-drive had got on the radio and radioed the team the team were waiting for them in Ponte Vecchio out of the stage he got on on the radio and said the cars burning it's finished they're burning they're burning I mean can you imagine oh you you can't you can't imagine these the competitors but the comrades the friends they're you know they all would have feared a joke in a laugh in the morning in the regroup maybe the same hotel your they'd enjoy some great competition over there the years and you cannot imagine them how awful that whole thing must have been vote for those boys coming across the accident I know as you say it was a sport defining nice David we still have the memorial here yeah and that's you know it's quite clear from the memorial of it it's almost a place of pilgrimage isn't it for for rally fans you when you come here it goes I imagine the majority of people who visit childer course will make the trip here yeah you know I did I've done I'm sure you've done the same Emily you know you know tamburan excellent we're we're Senate I didn't it savino's a very similar feeling it's it's a strange you know was a heck of a heck of a loud heck of a character and you know his exploits will will live long yeah absolutely that's for sure yeah you

Channel: Autosport

Views: 3,014,982

Rating: 4.5768838 out of 5

Keywords: WRC, Corsica, Henri Toivonen, Toivonen crash, Group B rallying, Lancia Delta Group B rally, Toivonen death

Id: Tmw0vDgTnO4

Length: 6min 14sec (374 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2019