The Finnish Rally Legend on Motorsport, Life, Death, and Everything in Between
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motorsport ARI VATANEN THE FINNISH RALLY LEGEND ON MOTORSPORT, LIFE, DEATH, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN WORDS VAISHALI DINAKARAN 208 SEPTEMBER 2019 OVERDRIVE.IN OVERDRIVE.IN SEPTEMBER 2019 209 Ari Vatanen and Terry Harryman in their Peugeot he says, his voice heavy with emotion 205 T16 at the 1985 as the memories come flooding back. “I Acropolis Rally, which, was absolutely fascinated… captivated unfortunately ended in by what I saw. And I think my mind, my retirement spirit, went with the car. Only my body stayed behind,” he smiles. It was at this precise moment that Vatanen says his dream was born. A dream that was, “Not to succeed, but a dream to just drive and to just experience the overwhelming pleasure of driving!” Vatanen is aware, however, that it was probably this quest for the “overwhelming pleasure of driving” that not only characterised his driving style but also his rally results. It isn’t something that bothers him even after all these years, because, as he puts it, “I have lived life not at the reserve! I cannot live like that,” he says. And he says it so emphatically and earnestly that one can’t an artist!” he says. And it immediately help but feel it was the right choice for conjures up images of that Peugeot 205 him to have made. “I live in a way that T16 drifting through the snowy stages of I say ‘Let’s go for it!’” he laughs. But he Monte Carlo. does admit that there were a couple of Pure artistry. Albeit artistry that he times when, had he braked 10 metres believes led to that infamous “Vatanen earlier, he might have “saved my wife and Luck”, that he’s already owned up to myself a few headaches and heartaches.” creating. “I got consistently carried away, However, Ari Vatanen is Ari Vatanen. because my pure pleasure of driving Which is why he reacts the way only he overwhelmed my rational thinking,” t’s a sweltering hot day in continues flat out over the Pikes Peak add, “I’m not a hero. I haven’t saved can react - “spontaneously”. Which is he says. But his habit of going into Essay, France, where the course with only the other hand doing anyone’s life.” What he believes he’s done, why he writes the way only he writes - a corner without knowing what lay first round of the TitansRX the steering. It seems almost surreal that instead, is this: “I just witnessed how my “My writing is very large. My signature ahead, and then braking late, led to an championship is taking 31 years after that video was filmed, I’m life unfolded in front of me in a way I takes up a whole page. It’s just my important realisation. One that he doesn’t place. Almost all of my watching that very driver - rally legend could have never imagined.” character”. And which is also why he recommend people try while driving, but a energy is directed towards Ari Vatanen - casually amble through To fully grasp what he means we drives the way only he can drive: “I am metaphor that he feels is applicable to life preventing myself from a tent introducing himself to people, need to travel to the tiny Finnish town not an ‘Alain Prost’, not someone so itself. “If you brake late in life, you have no melting into a puddle of oblivious of the effect he’s having on of Tuupovaara, 460km north-east of clinical, someone who studies. No. I’m time for opportunism, you have no time nothingness, and the heat them. Eyes widen, jaws drop and tools Helsinki. A place remote, isolated, so for cynicism. You, with all the drawbacks has lulled my brain into such a stupor nearly slip from greasy fingers. After all, sparsely populated, that it was guarded you have, lead a real life,” he declares. that not even the revving of a 540hp how many people who’ve accomplished by a single policeman. One who would But this real life that Vatanen speaks Iengine has any effect on me. I’m only as much in motorsport as Vatanen has, inevitably be fast asleep when, in the of, came with ups and downs that roused from my reverie when a tall can manage to be this unassuming? dead of the night, 13-year-old Vatanen followed each other in rapid succession. Vatanen and Harryman yumping their way to pleasant-faced gentleman presents A month after that first encounter, would try practising the Scandinavian victory in the Peugeot 205 T16 at the 1984 Like the ever-changing nature of a himself before me, grasps my hand in an I manage to wrangle an interview with flick on deserted country roads. But the San Remo Rally. And tackling a corner at the rally stage - a sharp left here, a sharp amiable shake and says, “Hi, I’m Ari!” Vatanen. This time it’s at the second turning point in his life had been a year 1984 RAC Rally, which they won. Also seen right there, a crest here, a dip there - I’m not quite sure if I do a very good round of the championship at Lydden earlier, when a rally visited the faraway celebrating their win on the podium Vatanen’s own life seemed like it moved job of introducing myself, because at that Hill. It’s here, even while I see him town in which he grew up. All of 12 years from misery to joy and back again very instant, my brain conjures up footage posing for an endless number of fan old then, he sat by the side of the road rapidly. “You cannot believe how low I from Climb Dance, that most beautiful photographs, and stopping to talk to from 10pm, waiting with bated breath was after an accident,” he says, speaking of all motorsport videos, and flashes several people that he’s befriended over for the rally cars to come by. The first especially of his early days in the sport. forward to the 3 minute 28 second the course of the week, that he tells me car showed up at 2am. “It was a Finnish The Vatanens didn’t have a fortune to mark. It’s the point in the video when of his approach to his fame. The fact that summer night in mid June. So you spend on rallying, and the money he lost after battling corner after corner with he wears the mantle of ‘motorsport hero’ have this fantastic light in the middle of early on in his career was significant. both hands on the steering wheel, the lightly is evident. Of course, he is touched, the night. And then at two ‘o’ clock the “If I would tell any of my neighbours brave driver raises one red-gloved hand he says, by the affection and respect first car, a white Volvo 544, came and how much of my limited family budget I to shield his eyes from sunlight, and people have for him. But he’s quick to kicked up the dust and went sideways,” was losing, they would think that I was insane. Or that my mother was insane. She had already lost her husband in a IF YOU BRAKE LATE IN LIFE, YOU car crash and now her son was doing something life threatening!” But Ari HAVE NO TIME FOR OPPORTUNISM, persisted. A week before the Nortti Rally, YOU HAVE NO TIME FOR CYNICISM a turning point in his career, he’d had a 210 SEPTEMBER 2019 OVERDRIVE.IN OVERDRIVE.IN SEPTEMBER 2019 211 Vatenen recovering from his horrific crash at Rally Argentina in ‘85. Also seen in the Rothmans Rally Team Ford Escort, with co-driver Dave Richards at the ‘81 Rally San Remo. The pair won the title that year. Right: In the Subaru Legacy RS at Acropolis in ‘93 disastrous outing at another local rally, The highs, of course, include the 1981 like an out-of-body experience. over him. On the Saturday of the rally, There is, however, another aspect rolling his car in only the second stage. World Rally Championship title, and Of these stages, one came during over a 20km stage, Vatanen managed to finding those seconds. And it’s just as From the depths of his misery, however, four Dakar titles won in rapid succession the 1985 Monte Carlo Rally, where he to beat Kankkunen by four seconds. mysterious. According to Vatanen, these he was flung forward to the highs that between 1987 and 1991. “Four-and-a-half had that famous duel with Walter Rohrl. Then over a 40km stage, he beat him seamless performances only show up came with the win at the Nortti Rally. Dakar wins,” he reminds me, referring to If you want a blow-by-blow account of by another four seconds. And on the when you find the elusive “key”. “But you “And a week later, I could not believe the time he was disqualified from the ’88 what transpired, I recommend reading subsequent stage, held over a distance don’t know where the key is. It’s not like that I was physically or psychologically edition of the event after his Peugeot was Vatanen: Every Second Counts by Vesa of 20km, he beat Kankkunen by an a loaf of bread that you can go to a shop in such a state that I could beat Hannu briefly, and bizarrely, stolen while he was Väisänen. It’s a beautiful and honest astounding “11 seconds!”. If not for a and buy.