1000 Lakes

"Timo Mäkinen was Ford's star driver and when he changed to the new model Escort MkII for the 1000 Lakes in 1975 I was allowed to use the old MkI version that had been Timo's regular car in Finland. They just simply lent me the car, no service or anything else, but even so it was a dream come true to me.

I made all the arrangements myself and that involved some naïve decisions. Welsh journalist Gerry Phillips had helped me to do my first foreign rally a few months before in Jamaica (!) and believing he might open the doors to works teams I asked him to be my co-driver for this event.

I had done the recce on my own, trying to memorize all the stages so I'd know them by heart. At the start I was given photocopies of Timo Mäkinen's English pace-notes. Not a good idea! First of all, my English was still quite bad. Secondly, I had no real experience of using pace-notes, let alone someone else's without even having a chance to check them during the recce.

So, after the first, short stage in Laajavuori Gerry just whisked the notes over his shoulder to the back of the car and I started driving from memory.

As a virtual unknown and using tall, yielding Hakkapeliitta winter tyres (!) I managed to grab an early lead. In front of all the world stars. This can't be true! But then darkness fell - in many ways!

The road was narrow and after a brow it turned right. My memory must have let me down, because I didn't even try to turn the car in. We went off straight on, into some rocks. That was it.

I was young and didn't understand one should have been more cautious. The speed seemed to come naturally, so I just let rip.

After such a conclusion to the rally I felt I was left high and dry again… didn't know what to expect next…"