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Henri Toivonen isn't the only member of his family to have a motorsport pedigree. His father Pauli and younger brother Harri both competed and were successful in their own right. However, there are certain ironic parallels between Pauli's rallying career and Henri's; driving for Citroen, driving for Porsche and for Lancia and winning the Monte Carlo rally in a year that ends in 6!

  pauli toivonen

Pauli Toivonen, is Henri's father. Pauli also drove for Lancia, (like his son) in 1967 - he was the first full works driver employed by Cesare Fiorio. He contested many of the major events that now form a part of the WRC and won two of them.

His results major results as a rally driver were as follows :

  • Acropolis Rally '69 - 1st (Kolari)

  • Monte Carlo '66 - 1st (Mikander)

  • Swedish Rally '67 - 6th (Ahava)

  • 1000 Lakes '67 - 7th (Salonen)

  • Tour de Corse '67 - 2nd (Tiukkanen)

Pauli was European Rally champion in 1968 driving a Porche 911, but is best remembered by the British rally fans for the headlamps debacle on the 1966 Monte, as he was the driver of the "winning" Citroen, handed the rally win after five Minis were disqualified.

Pauli never used to brag about being a Monte winner - in fact, he barely mentioned it, choosing to keep that particular fact under wraps. However, when Henri won the Monte in his own right twenty years later - and fairly, by finishing a convincing first on the road - Pauli came up with the following quote: "Now the name of Toivonen has been cleared."

  HARRI TOIVONEN
Identity Harri Toivonen
Born 22/10/60
Status Married (Marja)
Hobbies Motor racing, golf

Harri took up rallying shortly after Henri - in 1983, he was part of the Finnish junior team, competing on selected WRC events in a Mitsubishi Colt Lancer. In 1986 he drove for the Austin Metro works team as colleague to Tony Pond, contesting the Shell British Open Series in one of the Group B 6R4s. Harri Toivonen was actually competing on the Fram Welsh Rally when news of his brother's fatal accident in Corsica filtered through.

After Henri's death,  Harri switched to circuit racing, first to touring cars and then to sportscars. He competed for Kremer Porsche in both the 1990 and 1991 WSCC, his best result being a third place finish when partnering Manuel Reuter in the ADAC 1000 kms at the Nurburgring in 1991, behind the Warwick/Brabham and Fabi TWR Jaguars.

Harri was one of the first people to offer support to Derek Warwick after his brother, Paul was killed in an accident at Oulton Park in a round of the NF3000 championships, which was decidedly poignant..... Quoted from Autosport (22.8.91) is the following: 

" I know the feeling, I would not wish it on anybody......" As the words sunk in, it was impossible to think of a reply. It was a poignant moment, made more so when Toivonen joined Warwick on the rostrum on Sunday. (Adam Cooper)

In 1992, Harri became the lead driver in the works BRM Sports - Prototype effort. The car flattered to decieve. It was fast, but woefully fragile, rarely finishing any races. The team disappeared without trace at the end of the season, though when BRM re-emerged in 1997, Harri was once again selected.

In recent years, Harri has been a regular in both the ALMS and ELMS series, driving a wide variety of machinery, most notably as part of the Klaas Zwart-run Ascari team.

2002 has seen Harri compete for Ascari in EuroBOSS single-seaters alongside Phil Andrews, driving the Benetton B197 based Ascari Judd.

Harri hung up his helmet at the end of the 2002 season.

Disclaimer: There might be a few mistakes in this, simply because I've had to piece together information from various sources. Apologies if there are any real clangers...

 
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