RIP Hannu Mikkola 1942 – 2021

I was privileged enough to see him make the competition debut of the S1E2 quattro at the 1985 Olympus Rally.

RIP

Olympus 2019

Back in April I dug out my old Olympus OM-2s 35mm camera that took most of these pictures on the site, got some batteries and film (not an easy task in 2019) and headed down the freeway to Shelton for the 2019 Olympus!  Here’s a teaser of what I got back from the lab…

Olympus Rally 1987

30 years ago, the Olympus Rally got underway in late June.  This year, the rally was to be run as a full manufacturer and driver points event, unlike 1986 where it was driver points only.  Running for full manufacturer points meant that the works teams sent a full entry.  However, due to the banning of Group B at the end of 1986, the rally was run under Group A, so it was a transition year from the highly evolved B’s to the new A’s.

The rally got underway on a Friday with “Mickey Mouse” spectator stages near the Tacoma Dome and a run up the hill behind Golden Gardens Park in Seattle.  After that was out of the way, the real stages got underway in the late afternoon near Shelton, WA.

I had to work on the Friday, so I was only able to make it to one of the Shelton stages after getting off work and only took one picture on the stage for some reason.  Probably due to the dust, which I recall as really bad, hanging in the trees with no breeze to move it along.

This is Markku Alen in the Group A Lancia Delta.  I believe this is the infamous stage where an unaware local got onto the stage in a Ford Mustang and preceded to hold Alen up, oblivious to what was going on behind them.  Alen was livid for a while and then can be seen laughing about it a bit later in some videos I’ve seen of the event.

Olympus Rally 2015

VNWM visited the Olympus Rally this weekend.  It’s my first rally since the 1989 Pacific Forest SCCA PRO Rally.  I have some video of that rally on VHS that I shot with my brothers huge VHS Camera that I need to transfer and post to the blog, but that’s another project for another day.

Spectating has changed since the 1980’s.  You are pretty much stuck in the caution tape corral that the marshals patrol with an iron fist.  We used to walk up the stage before the first car and get a good place for photos without a bunch of other spectators in the shot, but no more.  We sat on a stump about 5 feet from where the caution tape ended and were told that we’d have to move.  Some others went cross country across the clear cut to a better spot and were chased away by 3 marshals.  Also, you couldn’t walk on the road between cars.  We used to switch spots all the time during the stage to get a variety of positions.  I guess that is the risk-averse, lawyer infested society we live in, in 2015 vs. 1986…

I didn’t bother to bring my camera.  I did shoot a couple of crappy iPhone videos, mainly of the backs of other spectators heads.

RIP Bjorn Waldegaard

I just read that the first WRC World Champion, Bjorn Waldegaard, passed away from cancer.

I was lucky enough to see him compete at the 1986 and 1987 Olympus Rally.

That is him putting on his jacket at scrutineering for the 1986 Olympus Rally.

I’ve heard there is a story about him, recce for the ’86 Olympus, loosing a recce car in a flooded river, public nudity and the Washington State Patrol.  Maybe someone can share the specifics?

 

 

1986 Olympus Rally Revisited: Finish ceremony

The rally finished in the Washington State Capitol Building parking lot in Olympia Washington on Sunday night.  This was the last WRC rally to feature the Group B cars.  The FIA banned them after the Corsica tragedy and 1987 would be run with Group A cars.

These photos were taken by my good friend Denton  Morris.  He has graciously scanned his photos and is allowing me to post them here. Denton is a professional photographer and you can see his recent work at his website  www.dentonmorris.com.  The photos below are Denton’s property and he holds all the rights to them, so please don’t fold, spindle or mutilate the photos without contacting him directly, or contact me and I will put you in touch, if you wish to reuse them.

The cars crossed the finishing ramp in reverse order.

Rod Millen won Group A in his Mazda 323 GTX.

John Buffum scored a fine 3rd place in his short wheelbase Quattro.  This was John’s highest finish in a World Championship rally as well as the highest finish for an American still to this day.  With this finish, John gained A seeding for the next year.

Kankunnen was second, which also earned him second in the Driver’s championship for 1986, at least for now…

By winning the rally, Markku Alen became the World Driving Champion for 1986…

The crowd control guys crack me up, if they should have been so lucky, there wasn’t much of a crowd to control.

A couple of weeks later the FIA met in Paris and threw out the results of the San Remo rally.  This caused Markku to lose his points for the controversial event where Peugeot was excluded and Markku and Lancia won.  As a result of the San Remo points begin discarded, Markku then lost the World Driver’s Championship to Juha Kankkunen.  Ironically, they would become team mates at Lancia in 1987.  Markku would never win the WDC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1986 Olympus Rally Revisited: The last daytime stage

This was the last daylight stage we went to on the Sunday of the rally.  As you can see, I think it was the best attended of all the stages.  I’ve seen some pro photos of this stage as well.  We were able to get into the depressed area at the apex of the corner for some good close-up shots.  They probably wouldn’t allow spectators without press credentials to do this today.

These photos were taken by my good friend Denton  Morris.  He has graciously scanned his photos and is allowing me to post them here. Denton is a professional photographer and you can see his recent work at his website  www.dentonmorris.com.  The photos below are Denton’s property and he holds all the rights to them, so please don’t fold, spindle or mutilate the photos without contacting him directly, or contact me and I will put you in touch, if you wish to reuse them.

 

 

1986 Olympus Rally Revisited: Raymond Stages Part 4

Sunday dawned grey and foggy, but dry.  I read later that the fog caused Alen to slow a bit, but his lead was never threatened.  The stage below was a neat stage, with the spectator area in a clear cut.  We hiked in a bit and had the area all to ourselves.  We got some neat shots by standing on some of the stumps.

Once again, these photos were taken by my good friend Denton  Morris.  He has graciously scanned his photos and is allowing me to post them here. Denton is a professional photographer and you can see his recent work at his website  www.dentonmorris.com.  The photos below are Denton’s property and he holds all the rights to them, so please don’t fold, spindle or mutilate the photos without contacting him directly, or contact me and I will put you in touch, if you wish to reuse them.

Markku Alen was first through the stage.

 

 

Next was the 205 of Kankkunen.

JB was next in the Sport Quattro.  He was quite a ways behind the leading two works cars.

Lars-Erik Torph’s TTE Toyota Celica Turbo.

The Alessandrini’s were still in the rally with their private Delta S4.

Rod Millen in the Group A 323.

 

1986 Olympus Rally Revisited: Raymond stages part 3

Here’s another Raymond area stage.  This one took place on the Saturday, just as it was getting dark.  Probably about 4pm at that time of year.  The week before there had been heavy rains in the area causing some erosion.  You can see evidence of that on this stage, the road where we were at was barely wide enough for the cars to pass.

Again, these photos were taken by my good friend Denton  Morris.  He has graciously scanned his photos and is allowing me to post them here. Denton is a professional photographer and you can see his recent work at his website  www.dentonmorris.com.  The photos below are Denton’s property and he holds all the rights to them, so please don’t fold, spindle or mutilate the photos without contacting him directly, or contact me and I will put you in touch, if you wish to reuse them.

Markku Alen was first through.

Next was Kankkunen in the Pug.

John Buffum was next in the Quattro.  I like how you can see the sky in the background of the second shot.

One of the Group B Toyotas.

The Alessandrini’s Delta S4.

Rod Millen’s Group A Mazda.  That is me in the background, trying not to get a rock through the lens of my camera.

A Group N Toyota entered by a Canadian team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1986 Olympus Rally Revisited: Brooklyn stages part 2

Here’s another stage that I don’t remember the name of.  I do remember it was another Raymond, WA area stage.  It had a good view of the cars coming into a junction and it turned out to be more exciting that we had first guessed.

Again, these photos were taken by my good friend Denton  Morris.  He has graciously scanned his photos and is allowing me to post them here. Denton is a professional photographer and you can see his recent work at his website  www.dentonmorris.com.  The photos below are Denton’s property and he holds all the rights to them, so please don’t fold, spindle or mutilate the photos without contacting him directly, or contact me and I will put you in touch, if you wish to reuse them.

Markku Alen was through the stage 1st in the Lancia Delta S4.

Juha Kankkunen was next in the Peugeot 205 T-16.

John Buffum was next in the Sport Quattro with an unorthodox line.

One of the TTE Group B Celicas.  Not sure who.

The privately entered Delta S4 of the Alessandrinis.

I think this was New Zealander Clive Smith’s Group A Toyota.

Looks like it could be a Subaru.  Subaru had 2 XT’s entered in Group A for Peter “Possum” Bourne and Chad DiMarko.

Looks like a Mitsubishi of some sort.  There was a Japanese team that had entered one and finished 14th.

Not even sure what this car is…

This looks to be the Audi 80 Quattro of Paul Choiniere and Tom Grimshaw.  Paul is John Buffum’s step son.  Choiniere/Grimshaw would finish 10th in the rally, earning one World Rally Championship point.

Here’s another mystery car.  It might be Whiting / Damitio in their Toyota.  Whoever it is, they seem to have attacked the caution tape.