"In the mid-1980s, rallying became more popular than Formula 1." "Rules were changed, allowing manufacturers to create ever more crazy and powerful cars." "Known as Group B machines, they unleashed unseen power on the World Rally Championship." "Too much power, too much speed." "It was the fastest rallying there'll ever be." "The 1980s would become known as rallying's golden years." "Star drivers, given the extreme challenge of keeping these cars on the tarmac, gravel, and snow." "However, rallying quickly became lethal, as the race for more power left safety behind." "In a Group B car, it was so easy to make mistakes." "And the car was completely destroyed." "It was crazy." "Absolutely crazy." "An accident, or more, was bound to happen." "The unregulated mayhem ended abruptly in 1986 after a series of tragedies." "The Group B was something quite emotional, but I try always to cancel this period from my mind." "This is the inside story of when rallying went out of control, the madness that happens when fans, ambition, politics and cars collide." "Rallying started as a hobby for motor enthusiasts using their everyday car." "The adventurous and eccentric competing in a series of road tests against the clock." "It was Grand Prix's scruffy cousin." "Women competed equally alongside men." "In the 1960s, the sport was predominantly amateur." "Grand Prix driver, Tony Brooks, even entering a taxi in the 1961 Monte Carlo Rally." "It was all part of rallying's non-exclusive joie de vivre." "By the 1980s, the World Rally Championship consisted of events in 12 countries, up to 5,000km long, split into day and night stages." "Top car companies and professional teams competed." "It was the ultimate test of speed and endurance for the car, driver and co-driver." "All these rallies were different." "You know, you had tarmac in Corsica, rough roads in Greece," "African roads in Africa." "It was a hell of a challenge, not only for the drivers and crews that were taking part but also for the engineers, because you've got to design a car which could perform well in all those conditions." "But, I mean, it's madness to go rallying in the first place." "All this was, was a, sort of, refined madness." "Go on, keep going." "Keep going." "That's it." "Always follow the arrows, don't I?" "This isn't a laughing matter, is it?" "Well, you got to laugh, or you'll cry, don't you?" "And I don't like crying." "Motorsport's governing body is based in Paris's Place De La Concorde, a long way from the gravel and dirt tracks of rallying." "Its leader in the 1980s was the unpredictable Jean-Marie Balestre." "Balestre invited, for the first time, manufacturers to help shake up rallying's rules." "I think you're wrong, here, to assume that Mr Balestre had a very clear view of what the future was going to be." "I don't think he had any idea about cars or anything like that." "His business was publishing." "Balestre's dream, if there was one, was that he was going to get a lot of manufacturers in and a lot of people were going to pay fees, or a lot of money, you know, to go rallying." "The manufacturers wanted it easier to make more powerful rally cars, to leave behind the need to base them on a road vehicle." "They wanted to showcase their extreme engineering, because it helped sell cars." "Balestre agreed, and it would radically transform the sport." "The new Group B rules allowed manufacturers to leave behind the standard public production models and design their rally cars starting from a clean sheet of paper." "Exotic materials, clever aerodynamics, unlimited power could then be added to the cars that became known as evolutions." "A new breed of monster car had arrived." "FISA didn't necessarily understand what they were creating with Group B." "You can't be surprised that the manufacturers exploit that, because that's what they're paid to do." "That's what they want to do." "And, I mean, engineers and team managers, you know, they all get a kick out of this." "I mean, you've only got to look at the Group B cars to understand that there was quite a lot of innovative thinking, shall we say, during that period." "For sure, you must, if you want to be competitive, the rules, you must use them very borderline." "Rally cars were becoming more visceral and more challenging." "Drivers loved it." "It felt like those fighter plane pilots who are launched off the, the aircraft carrier." "Like a catapult which is pushing you." "And of course, it's...ah!" "What I like is the, it's a challenge to try to feel the limit of the car, to feel the limit of yourself, and in rallying it's the team, because you're not alone," "you're with your co-driver." "And then to play with the limits of everything." "It's this adrenaline who will give you the limit of the car and yourself." "I don't do this sport to earn money." "I do it just for fun." "I want to know if I'm a dreamer or not." "That was the reason I have done it." "In front of the rally car, the race car, you must dream, and you are dreaming with those cars." "If I was able to play piano like a maestro, I mean," "I would play with my eyes closed, and I would just, with the goose bumples on my skin, and driving is like that." "It's like a music." "It takes you." "But you need a good piano." "And Group B was a fantastic piano." "70, absolute right, 150, unseen easy right," "50, easy left, 50 grid, 100." "Oh!" "Dear God!" "Despite the manufacturers' and drivers' enthusiasm for more speed, the omens were not good." "Rallying had a recent history of fatal accidents in much slower cars." "In the 1981 Finnish Rally," "Franz Wittmann failed to see the stop sign, driving into official Raul Falin, who died later from his injuries." "In the 1982 Rally of Brazil, amateur Thomas Fuchs' tiny Fiat disappeared off the road into a lake." "He drowned, and was left in his car." "In 1983, Reijo Nygren was killed at the Thousand Lakes Rally." "These accidents showed that event and car safety were already often inadequate." "Group B was taking speed and the consequences of an accident to another level." "Clearly, to produce ever more powerful cars was going to cause a lot of problems." "That was, that was the nature of the sport at that time." "We were pushing the envelope with those cars, there's no question about it." "There was little time between the rule change and the first Group B rally at Monte Carlo in 1983." "Cesare Fiorio and his Lancia team were one of only four manufacturers to have a car ready." "Their new car, named the Lancia Rally, is a supercharged, tubular-framed, lightweight racer, designed for just one purpose." "In these dry conditions and on the twisting cambered roads of the Alps, it's utterly without equal." "Making a car 600 pounds lighter had massively improved acceleration." "It suited their driver, double world champion Walter Rohrl." "Before the start of last year, this rally, my tactic was the same like this year." "Attack." "And I have done it last year and I've been doing it this year." "Last year's winner, Walter Rohrl, is as good as his word." "The Lancia Rally may be new to him, but you wouldn't know." "With little snow, the Lancia's prowess on tarmac led to an easy win for Rohrl and his co-driver, Christian Geistdorfer." "A superbly professional drive from the world champion." "His second successive Monte Carlo Rally victory and the third of his career." "Lancia for the world championship?" "Well, the Italian team is certainly looking very impressive." "Winning Monte Carlo, it's the greatest thing you can achieve, because driving down in the morning light to Monte Carlo, from La Turbie, it's so emotional." "Unbelievable." "Lancia, though, had backed the wrong technology." "A small German company was about to make two-wheel-drive obsolete." "Manufacturers knew that fast rally cars winning on the track sold more cars in the showroom." "The Audi Quattro became such a car." "After test driving the Iltis, an army jeep on snow," "Audi development engineer, Roland Gumpert, realised he had seen the future of rallying." "It was obvious to Gumpert that four-wheel-drive would give twice the traction of two-wheel-drive, turbocharging enabling much more power from a relatively small engine." "They were putting their hands over their head and saying, "How you think to sell four-wheel-driven" ""stupid cars to the public?"" "So, everybody at this time, has a problem, couldn't believe that it would be a success in the future." "All the technical people, or leading technical people in Mercedes said," ""This thing will never work, so, don't worry about it." ""We're doing the right thing." "Forget about Audi."" "And we were laughing, saying, "These stupid guys," ""they do not understand physics."" "It was fantastic feeling." "I remember the first time" "I went down to Ingolstadt, and get to drive in the car and I couldn't believe the difference between two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive." "Because that's like day and night." "When I started with Audi they did a survey in France to know about what people think about Audi." "7% of the French people were answering "It's a washing machine."" "I tell you, after one year, nobody would say that in France, for sure." "With the promise of 370 brake horsepower and four-wheel-drive technology, Audi wooed the best drivers." "Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist, Michele Mouton were a formidable team." "And Audi claimed the drivers' world titles in the first two years of Group B." "They blitzed the opposition." "There was no way the rest could keep up." "So, Audi and against Lancia." "The scene set for a terrific battle." "Audi had outsmarted the opposition." "The Audi Quattro revolutionised the sport." "Because they were winning everything." "I mean, they were completely dominant of the sport." "The team was really strong, and they knew what to do." "So, it was a very, very good time." "It was very hard to beat." "And winning the championship was a nice feeling." "The Audi Quattro would become the iconic car of the 1980s, entirely due to its rallying success." "With the commercial rivalry and the drama of the cars, came huge crowds." "In 1984, over one million people would go to the RAC Rally." "The people loved the sport." "Every year, more people showed up to see the stages and, in those years, rallying was much more famous than Formula 1." "The sport was growing into a dimension that was just unbelievable." "We had hundreds, thousands of spectators on the stages." "There's different attitudes to spectating in some places." "Some of the Portuguese guys used to touch the cars, as the cars went by down the stages." "So, drivers were faced with going down an avenue of fans with hands reaching out, trying to the cars." "And that's not fair on the drivers." "Driving rallies in Italy or Portugal or Spain, the spectators are on the road and you couldn't see, even, where is the road going on, and the car is coming, the driver through the crowd," "and the crowd opening, and behind the car, closing again." "If a guy got to touch a car, he was kind of an hero." "He did some dangerous thing." "There was a guy in San Remo, for example, went off a little bit and broke his leg, and he was happy like hell to have his leg broken by Walter Rohrl." "So, some of the fans are really, really keen about things." "It was too dangerous, you know, these people, the spectators, they wasn't used that the Group B car was so fast." "People didn't move backwards, putting the car sideways, sadly, you could hear "bum, bum, bum" where you were hitting people." "There is a point where you have to drive thinking like, you know, they are part of the game." "You try to consider that they are like trees." "You don't want to hit trees or anything." "It's difficult." "Very difficult." "So, we could not stop this." "And, for these people, even if you hurt someone, then that's their mistake." "If you look in the FIA Yellow Book of the period, there isn't one single page on how to run a rally safely, but the problem is, you're so busy competing and organising your team and everything like that" "that that sort of thing rather goes past you." "I think everyone knew that it was all getting too quick." "I think the drivers were scared," "I think the co-drivers were more scared, but there was a momentum with these things." "I think it takes, it would have taken a very brave person to cancel a round of the World Rally Championship." "It seemed crowds were already too big to deal with, but an incredible new car was about to make the sport even more popular." "In a run-down suburb on the outskirts of Paris," "Peugeot were out to save their floundering company with a secret project in development." "Going against convention, they hired an experienced rally co-driver," "Jean Todt, to oversee the task." "He was always a very strong personality, he knew the sport inside out, and he knew what was required to make a very successful team." "It's all about human management, running a team." "Technical side is there, engineers take care of it." "The rest is human management." "How to bring the best out of human beings." "And people must have a feeling that they have a boss who cares, and he cared for people, and that's why our team was so successful." "Hiring Jean Todt was to prove a masterstroke, as he would oversee the design of the Peugeot 205 T16, choosing to put the engine in the middle of the car for lightness and balance." "The thing which was very scaring is that all the Audi people were saying a four-wheel-drive car mid-engine can never work." "Putting the engine behind the driver was common in racing cars, but nobody had built a transverse, mid-engined, four-wheel-drive rally car before." "The fear was that it would be unstable when it left the ground." "In 1984, after extensive testing, they travelled to the Corsican Rally with high hopes." "Their number one driver was former world champion and flying Finn, Ari Vatanen." "I remember when I tested in Corsica, and I stopped after a few accelerations and looked at Terry Harryman, and I said, "Look at this car!" "It's fast."" "It's a swell, but felt so good it rendered me confident in that car." "It just felt like a glove on my hand." "Not only confidence, it put a smile on my face when I was driving." "Vatanen's optimism was born out." "After the first few stages, Peugeot were in front." "Rally history was rewritten and the pressure was now on Lancia, Audi and the other teams." "When you do something, you are always under pressure to deliver." "Of course." "You know, it's so many people promise speak, but what is very important, and it has always been my philosophy in life, is to deliver." "If you commit to something, you have to deliver." "That was the turnaround in the history of Peugeot." "It was the combination of new car and motorsport programme, and so we not just were winning rallies and fighting for victories, but this programme played absolutely a fundamental role in saving livelihoods of ordinary workers at the Peugeot factory." "The Corsican Rally of 1984 was to sow the seeds for a fantastic sequence of victories, ultimately saving the company." "In 1984, the Peugeot 205 was named Car Of The Year." "Five races, three victories, this is the 205's score." "In the world championship there's not a shadow of doubt, the new challenger's name is Peugeot." "Ari Vatanen and Terry Harryman, who've won, this year, by 41 seconds." "As the Monte Carlo Rally opened the 1985 season," "Audi had little hope of beating Peugeot." "The once-struggling French manufacturer was rubbing salt into the wounds of their German and Italian rivals." "Do you think you can be faster?" "With my car, you've seen I am eight minutes slower." " What's your prognostic?" " Ari will win and I hope I will be second." "Rohrl's prediction was right." "Vatanen was untouchable." "But it came at a high price, as he ran over some spectators on his way to victory." "This did not stop Peugeot's marketing execs from lining the roads of the rally's final stage to celebrate." "Timo Salonen, Peugeot's recent addition, came third." "Peugeot followed Monte Carlo up with another win for Vatanen in Sweden." "I was trying a little bit too hard," "I got a little bit too enthusiastic," "I was trying to decide the whole rally on one stage, so I had to pay for it, but, luckily, we got away." "I only lost some 40 seconds, but, in any case, you know, that put us back, but we are leading by one minute and 19 seconds, now." "You made no fault, but you can't pass Ari." "It's a little bit difficult." " Why?" " He are too quick." " What can you do against Ari now?" " Nothing, I think." "Thank you." "Audi even thought about quitting, only to plough on with a new evolution of the Quattro." "By May 1985, Lancia hadn't won for a year." "So difficult, you know." "Everybody go like hell." "One time, in Finland, we were after one week driving, we finished second, with, I think, seven seconds." "So it was like the first place." "Can you imagine, after one week, seven seconds being the second?" "But, no matter, it's second place, and not counting." "So, you have the pressure to win." "And, the whole team was just, "Win is counting."" "So, the victory's counting, nothing else." "The 1985 season rolled on, leading to the high-speed, high-pressure Corsican tarmac rally." "This was one of the most exciting and most dangerous in the season, with sheer cliffs, back-to back-corners, and little if any protection when things go wrong." "Former champions Lancia were now relegated to being the also-rans, straggling behind Audi and the domineering Peugeots." "Local hero Attilio Bettega had not been on the podium for over eight months, and was feeling the strain." "His Lancia 037 was designed for tarmac, and if he was to steal a victory, this would be one of his only chances." "There's a very high-quality entry for the event, with representation from Lancia, Peugeot, Renault, Audi, Opel, and Rothmans Porsche." "Waving the competitors away, the rather controversial president of FISA," "Jean-Marie Balestre." "At number four, Attilio Bettega with the second of the two works Lancias." "The Italian, who went well in the early stages of the safari, gets away from the ramp." "Bettega was a very serious driver coming from the mountain, you know, people from the mountain are very serious and very motivated." "They don't talk too much, but he drove very, very good." "Very good driver." "Standing in Bettega's way was Audi's Walter Rohrl." "He was also feeling the strain of a losing streak, and had been on the island practising for six weeks." "If I say I was good or I was the best, then it was on tarmac." "You say, of course, I have to win Corsica, because Corsica was, at this time, it was the most famous and the best tarmac rally in the world." "But I never won it, because always I had some technical problems." "I was sure we can win it." "The Audi went quite well in the early stages of the Portuguese Rally which was held on tarmac stages as well, so things should be fairly good for the German driver." "However, Rohrl's car had terminal brake failure on the first stage, only a few kilometres into the 1,600km event." "And, that was, that was really hard for me," "I remember I was completely destroyed." "I had me under control." "Even if my father or my mother has died," "I was not crying." "But in this time I was absolutely, I was completely destroyed." "Ideal conditions on this first leg, and the first stage threw up a few surprises." "Competition is often cruel, but as Rohrl got on his aeroplane home, his failure became a golden opportunity for others down the ranks to take advantage and make their name." "Could Attilio Bettega be one of those to upset the form book?" "Pushing hard, he was lying in second after the first stage." "Three stages later, it would end in tragedy." "Bettega went off the road." "He was too much over the limit, and this sport is still too dangerous to play around with high-risk things." "It was a bumpy place, where he, where everybody was lifting." "And he was the only one who was putting the foot down and trying to do it flat out." "Bettega was an accident that, I think, had nothing to do with Group Bs or whatever." "It was a normal rally accident which turned bad because he hit a tree in the front." "With Bettega's death, Group B had claimed its first victim." "The 037, if you have an accident, the front was nothing, it was just five tubes like this." "There are all the drivers who are a category lower, and they have to risk much more to achieve what those boys who were world-class drivers are doing in a very simple way, just naturally." "Bettega was this kind of second category drivers." "Good, very good in some events, but he was not at the class of a Rohrl, Alen, Mikkola." "Up to this time, he was the fastest driver in Italy, and then Biasion was coming and he put a lot of pressure on him." "That was the reason he was killed." "He was so under pressure." "In rally driving, in race driving, you have only one person who is interesting for you, that's your team-mate." "The rest has better cars." "That's the reason they go faster than you." "But if your team-mate is faster than you, what do you tell?" "What do you do?" "You go to Corsica, you know, where you're rallying, you know what's going on." "I think in any sport, it doesn't matter what you're doing, the participant knows what he's taking on." "There were no thoughts of grieving or stopping." "The rally had to continue." "With Lancia withdrawn and five other cars broken down," "Ari Vatanen could snatch victory." "An earlier puncture, however, forced him to drive beyond his limits." "In second place on the road, but seventh overall, is Ari Vatanen, and he's going as quick as ever." "Vatanen is flying." "Although, anything can happen when Vatanen is going quick." "I forgot," "I just got myself so enthusiastic," "I went to the floor." "I just..." "But I enjoyed it." "And, also, those setbacks when you drive every corner as if it was your last corner." "Then, yes, you win less, but you gain a lot." "Miraculously, Ari Vatanen and his co-driver escaped serious injury." "But, if it's not dangerous, they're not going to do it." "They don't want to play with tiddlywinks." "They want to be challenged." "They want to do things that are dangerous." "They want to go faster than the other guy." "That's what motorsport's about, and if you took today's rally drivers or today's Formula 1 drivers and took away the risk, they wouldn't get a kick out of it." "Everybody starts to laugh at you," ""You are crazy, you are going so fast," but I was always, always behind, I said, "You must be careful." ""Don't overturn it." And I always realised, also, the dangers." "Walter's a real gentleman and his driving style also was very clean, like a professor." "Opposite to mine, I suppose." "Don't tell him tomorrow." "Ari was just starting to fly." "I play music with my eyes closed but heart open." "It's up to you to decide what's the definition of that." "Is it a crazy or what else?" "Driving is, in a way, an extension of your personality." "He was quite dangerous, too." "I think if people are not able to be afraid for something, then it's dangerous." "OK, people tell this is a hero." "But most heroes are died." "Ari Vatanen's luck ran out in Argentina." "A crashed turned serious when his seat snapped." "I remember those bends, the ones I did not make, and there are many, but maybe it's that dip in the road on that long straight in Argentina where I nearly died." "And my life very, very nearly ended there." "I hit the dip and the car went end over end and my seat broke down, entirely, and that's why I wasn't harnessed any more by seat belts," "I got all these multiple injuries, and if it wasn't for the helicopter which came to look for me, I wouldn't be here today." "I mean, I was not in this world any more." "All I had kept apparently saying, "No more rallies." "No more rallies."" "Ari Vatanen almost died." "His knees were crushed flat." "He had eight broken ribs, a broken leg, a broken back and a punctured lung." "He would spend the next 18 months in a deep depression and he would never race a competitive Group B rally again." "That's all part of life." "I can't see my life without those bends and without those dips." "Life is full of setbacks, it's full of tragedy." "I mean, the banana skin is waiting for you around the corner, anyway, and you don't know where it is." "With Bettega dead and Vatanen seriously ill, a cloud began to form over Group B." "Peugeot's second driver, Salonen, went on to secure the 1985 championship, his conservative and controlled approach countering the fiery nature of his 205 T16." " What are you going to do tomorrow?" " Same speed." "I try to maybe a little bit faster if Stig start pushing." "1986 would be a critical year." "Other manufacturers were desperately trying to exploit FISA's relaxed rules, hoping to use rallying's new-found fame to sell more cars." "Austin Rover launched its £10 million Metro 6R4, a shopping car on steroids." "Ford weighed in with its ugly duckling, the RS200." "Porsche, its ever-delayed 939." "Audi, their new E2 and S1, set to take power through the magical 500 brake horsepower ceiling." "No-one, though, was prepared for the unveiling in Italy of Lancia's brutal mid-engined, supercharged, turbocharged four-wheel-drive Delta S4." "It would render all their efforts a waste of time." "It was almost like a caricature of a Delta." "You could see Delta bits on it." "You could see the likeness, but under the skin the car was quite, quite different." "You know, it was like a Formula 1 car for the forest." "It was so exotic." "I suppose the Delta S4 was the ultimate Group B rally car." "It had turbocharger, supercharger, four-wheel-drive, all the tricks they could find and a few more they couldn't find." "And the aerodynamics were outrageous." "The designers chose to cram all the technology in the back of the car and to place the driver and co-driver on top of the fuel tanks." "Couple this machine with one of rallying's hot young talents," "Henri Toivonen, and Lancia were once again primed to win the 1986 championship." "I knew him since he was seven years old." "And he was a little boy coming to see his father, Paoli, that was driving, already, for me." "So his story and his relationship with our team was quite strong." "We have the drivers, we have the know-how of how to organise the team." "And we must do it better than the others." "And that's what we did." "Everybody was trying to outdo each other, whether it was in terms of facilities, number of personnel, number of service vehicles, tyre choice, the drivers, you know, everything was just ratcheted up event by event." "I think when you know that you are not as strong as your competition, you must be more clever to beat them." "Members of board expected from me to win." "They're looking at rallying as a means of selling their products, so that the pressure is coming from that side, saying, "OK, we're investing" ""all these millions in your rally team." ""You must deliver us victories."" "When you are engaged with a factory team, you have to...the responsibility to try to win." "I always felt that I had two personality in myself, you know, the one who was in rallying, very egoistic, and then out of the car I was like another person, you know." "Helmet and gloves change a lot on a rally driver." "When I was winning the championship, I think, we stayed about 290 days at hotel." "He was never at home, actually." "You know, I can remember drivers coming to the end of the stage and they're absolutely physically drained." "Of course, it was a big, big challenge." "Yeah, because you get this kind of adrenaline, which makes you so enthusiastic about what you're doing." "And it's just over-revving yourself, going into the red, and then suddenly you haven't got the reaction any more, because you're too tired." "Group B was pushing drivers to the edge." "Henri Toivonen, works Lancia." "Off!" "Deep in the ditch." "Try reverse." "No good." "The start of the 1986 season showed just how much rallying had grown in the last four years." "On the starting line, teams flexed their wallets," "Peugeot trumping everyone by bringing four works cars." "Michelin arrived with 30,000 tyres, team helicopters flying them around the 4,000 km Alpine course for mid-stage pit stops." "Jean Todt declared his Peugeot evolution" ""As good as it needs to be,"" "only to have to eat his words as Henri Toivonen in his Lancia Delta S4 stormed ahead." "This, despite Toivonen crashing into a spectator's car in between stages." "The Italians that had poured over the border were in raptures." "Unfortunately, as the champagne flowed, news came through that yet again a spectator had been hospitalised, this time with a smashed leg." "Questions were asked if rallying was being mismanaged." "Cars had nearly doubled in power in the space of three years, yet FISA had not changed the crowd management or structure of the rallies." "They were now more intense than ever." "You know, the Group B's cars were very difficult to drive, even for the superstars." "I was in '73 Monte Carlo with 130 horsebrakes and '86 with 530 horsebrakes." "It was the same ditch, the same rock, it was just me and my head to keep me alive." "Were the rule-makers out of their depth?" "Rallying's darkest day was just around the corner." "Drivers already went to the Portuguese Rally with trepidation." "Since the '70s it had become the most overcrowded of the season." "Crowd control was an established problem." "This year, over 300,000 fans piled into the woods." "Group B was reaching fever pitch." "And the usual question, Portugal, the spectators." "That's the only thing which scared me here, it is something which I'm really afraid, if something happens and it's a disaster." "Yeah, I'm sure that's going to be a big problem, but apparently the Portuguese police have guaranteed that they will be under a lot more control on Sintra, places like that, which is a critical area." "Hoping to see the new Group B supercars and join in the fun were local rally fans Helio Tomar and Nuno Sardinha." "Nuno and Helio chose to stand on the popular and notorious water bend, a bend that rallying would never forget." "As well as the top names," "Portuguese national champion Joaquim Santos was also competing." "In 1983 he had become a local hero after pushing his broken" "Ford Escort over the finishing line." "In 1986 his flamboyant team manager and co-driver, Miguel D'Oliviera, secured the latest high-powered RS200 from Ford." "I was hoping to do well." "I had a good driver." "I was a fairly good co-driver." "You always wanted to have the best possible weapon to compete." "And it was a chance." "It was a big chance." "I was hoping to mix with the big boys." "When Joaquim came into the curve, one guy stepped one step into the tarmac, so he had to make a correction, and he lost it." "Joaquim Santos' car had ploughed into the crowd at 135 kph." "A mother and her child were instantly killed, while 32 others were injured." "Helio Tomar and his friend, Paoli, were rushed to hospital." "Paoli later died." "Joaquim Santos, uninjured, did not move." "He stayed in his car, his head bowed on the steering wheel." "He was completely in shock." "Completely in shock." "He came out of the car, he stayed in the middle of the road with his eyes glazed..." "..and... "What happened?" "Why?"" "The day's racing was cancelled, and down on the nearby Atlantic coast, the top drivers met to discuss what to do." "They decided to strike." "First, as a mark of respect for the families of the dead people and for those injured." "Two, there is a very special situation here in Portugal." "We feel that this impossible for us to guarantee the safety of the spectators." "Third." "The accident on stage one was caused by the driver having to try to avoid spectators that were in the road." "It was not due to the type of car or speed..." "The amateur drivers continued to race as recriminations began." "That was, for sure, the biggest mistake, that he has not enough experience." "He was first time in a car like this." "And, then, things happen." "It goes so easy that one situation the car is struggling with him and not he with the car." "It was not my fault," "I strongly believe that it was not my driver's fault." "It happened." "The fault, if there is a fault, is of the organisation." "People should not be on the road." "There was danger involved, but I took it, I accepted that risk." "And, of course, I never thought that such a carnage would happen with me in the car." "With my car." "With my driver." "The fallout from the Portugal incident would become a 20-year dispute for compensation." "However, in the immediate aftermath, political wheels began to turn in Paris." "In defiance of the works teams that had withdrawn from the event," "FISA boss, Balestre, wrote a letter to the organisers, praising them for allowing the rally to continue with amateur teams." "This was seen as a direct attack on the drivers who had gone on strike, an attempt by the FISA leader to show he was the boss." "FISA took no action against the Portuguese organisers for failing to control the crowds." "The writing was now on the wall for Group B machines." "Rallying had blood on its hands." "Audi decided not to rally again, but the rest of the teams moved on to the Safari Rally in Kenya." "Problems continued as Markku Alen, one of Lancia's drivers, accidentally ran over a child." "While the team helicopter took the child to hospital, the mechanics sorted out the car so Alen could continue." "Nothing could now stop a world championship rally." "Toyota won." "For Lancia, the Corsica Rally week began with them laying flowers at the memorial, marking the spot where Attilio Bettega died the previous year." "Corsica was France's rally, so naturally, the FISA president," "Balestre, a Frenchman, was there to celebrate." "Except his party was being spoiled." "The top Finnish drivers were rebelling, demanding shorter stages and fewer, rougher sections." "At a press conference, Balestre became angry, attacking the manufacturers for creating such high-performance cars and failing to control their drivers." "Despite the unresolved tension between the drivers and FISA, the rally went ahead unchanged." "This was Henri Toivonen's chance to show that the handling of his new S4 was more than a match for this all-tarmac event." "ITALIAN COMMENTARY" "Toivonen, who had a reputation for crashing out, was pushing more than ever." "At the end of day one, Toivonen and Cresto were leading Bruno Saby by almost two minutes." "By stage five on the second day, he was a minute quicker than anyone else." "But there was a problem." "Toivonen had been complaining of flu-like symptoms." "Toivonen was not well." "The stage times Henri was putting in that day were incredible." "He was in a completely different league, and, therefore, you do wonder whether he was thinking straight, you wonder whether Sergio Cresto was strong enough with him that day." "Henri was crazy, I mean, he was really more a Latin mentality than a Finnish, a Nordic mentality." "He was the only driver in my whole career who was able to go as fast as me." "But only on one stage." "The next one, BING!" "Four minutes left." "He was the only one." "And I always said," ""I'm not sure that he stays on life."" "On stage 17, he broke the record by an astonishing three minutes." "Then, tragedy struck." "We were all waiting for the end of the stage, and to see Henri coming, and of course, he didn't come, and we heard by radio there that an accident happened and we knew it was Henri, so we had been waiting and waiting" "to know, if, you know, if everything was out, the race was stopped." "And, of course, then, we knew afterwards what happened." "With their wrecked car engulfed in flames," "Toivonen and Cresto were burnt alive." "It's a long left corner which was tightening at the end." "And I think, at the end, maybe, he didn't tight enough and he went out." "And he was between the tree and the cliff, and of course, they couldn't go out and the car got fire." "I think, for me, it has been the biggest shock of the whole of my career, the loss of Henri." "I always think that Henri has been the greatest rally driver" "I have ever met." "Yeah." "Amazingly, the rally continued, though there was little doubt the remaining teams were numbed by the bad news." "Peugeot's Bruno Saby won the rally, but there was little enthusiasm for a champagne celebration." "Nobody was there for 20 or 30 minutes after he crashed." "And I think he was ill, he had the flu, he had something, he was taking a treatment for it, and I think that, ultimately, he lost concentration on the road." "The crew of the Delta S4 sat on the petrol tanks." "They had a petrol tank each." "Neither the roll cage nor the fire extinguisher saved Henri Toivonen." "The car was already alight when it hit the trees." "The Delta S4 was incredibly quick." "It was the ultimate" "Group B rally car." "But the..." "It wasn't as safe as it needed to be, obviously." "I have always put the safety of the driver in one of the first, the first place of every project we did." "Always knowing that motor racing is, will be, always, a dangerous sport." "Of course, if it was a Grand Prix, the fire would have been extinguished in ten seconds." "The same fire in the middle of the rally, you have, finito, eh?" "For me it was a bit of a shock, really, when he disappeared." "As conjecture on the causes of Toivonen's accident continued," "Balestre did a complete U-turn, announcing a ban." "Group B was dead." "The deregulated competition that made Group B rallying so strangely addictive had caused its inevitable demise." "It was probably the best part of my life." "It was just so intense." "Group B, it was the only time." "It will never come back." "I think." "It was, it was a highlight in my career." "It was fantastic." "I like it." "For me, it was, of course, fantastic period of where you had the big competition but also a fantastic life." "It was in your focus for so many years, and you were putting everything behind the sport to be successful and you will never forget what you have done." "You enjoyed it so much." "It was a great time." "Absolutely gorgeous." "It's like a pearl in my life." "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd"