Finnish rally legend ‘Flying Finn’ Hannu Mikkola dies at 78

<p>HELSINKI &mdash; Hannu Mikkola, the 1983 rally world champion and one of Finland’s rally greats who earned the nickname the “Flying Finn” and international renown in a driving career spanning more than 30 years, has died. He was 78. </p>
<p>Mikkola’s son Vesa Mikkola, a former rally driver, <a href="https://twitter.com/wazu33/status/1365523010061541377">tweeted Saturday</a> that “we lost my father Hannu to cancer this weekend. Most knew him as a rallying great who ushered in the golden years of the sport. To me he was dad.”</p>
<p>Mikkola started his driving career in Volvo cars in the early 1960s but made his reputation driving a series of Ford Escorts in world rally events in the 1970s, including a win in the East African Safari Rally in Kenya in 1972 and a British Rally Championship in 1978. </p>
<p>On his home turf, he won Finland’s 1,000 Lakes Rally on seven occasions among other achievements. </p>
<p>Mikkola was at the forefront of the four-wheel drive revolution in world rallying and claimed the 1983 title in an Audi Quattro, the first for an all-wheel drive car in FIA World Rally Championship history.</p>
<p>He later teamed up with the Mazda team before retiring from professional motor sports in the early 1990s. </p>
<p>Mikkola made 123 WRC starts — with a total of 18 wins — and continued to compete as a guest driver at a variety of events until 2017, WRC said in a statement following his death.</p>
<p>News of Mikkola’s death prompted several homages from his former colleagues and fans around the world and in Finland, a motor sports powerhouse that has produced several Formula One and rally champions.</p>
<p>The organizers of the WRC Arctic Rally that took place over the weekend in Rovaniemi in Finland’s Lapland region, observed a one-minute’s silence at the podium in tribute to Mikkola. </p>
<p>In addition, the Finnish Air Force’s F-18 Hornet fighter jets conducted a memorial flyover at the venue in honor of one of the Nordic country’s most famous rally drivers. </p>
<p>FIA President Jean Todt, a former rally driver, attended the event and <a href="https://twitter.com/JeanTodt/status/1365600174161203200">in a tweet</a> called Mikkola “a legendary driver and a lifelong friend.”</p>
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