Pentti Airikkala

Pentti Airikkala ( born September 4, 1945 in Helsinki, † 30 September 2009 in Bray, Berkshire, United Kingdom) was a Finnish rally driver.

Airikkala denied his first rally in 1965 and took 1973-1990 to a total of 36 rounds of the World Rally Championship ( WRC) in part. In 2003 he started as part of a comeback on a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 in the Rally of Great Britain for the last time in the World Rally Championship. He can win in 1989 with a Mitsubishi Galant VR -4 ( still known as the RAC Rally at the time), with which he marked the most significant success of his motorsport career, the same rally. In addition, he secured in 1974 to several group 1 cars, the Finnish and 1979 Vauxhall Chevette 2300 HS with the British Rally Championship.

After ending his playing career, who lives in England Finn founded in the Oxfordshire countryside a Left Foot Braking (Eng. " brakes with the left foot " ) called School for rally and racing driver whose best-known graduates Colin McRae, Richard Burns, Mikko Hirvonen and Jari -Matti Latvala were.

Airikkala died in late September 2009 at the age of 64 years from the effects of a long- suffering prostate cancer after it had previously been admitted because of problems with his liver and after a fall in a hospital.