Henri Toivonen

(1956 - 1986) Finnish rally driver born in Finland. His father, Pauli Toivonen, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri Toivonen, became a professional circuit racer. Toivonen, driving a Lancia Delta S4, died in an accident on 2 May 1986 while leading the Tour de Corse rally in Corsica. His American co-driver, Sergio Cresto, also died when the Lancia plunged down a ravine and exploded. The fatal accident had no close witnesses and the only remains of the car were the merely blackened spaceframe, making it impossible to determine the cause of the accident. Within hours of the accident, Jean-Marie Balestre, then President of the FISA, had banned the powerful Group B rally cars from competing the following season, ending rallying's popular supercar era.Toivonen was known as a competitive driver both on gravel and tarmac surfaces, and he found it difficult to choose between circuit racing and rallying. After becoming a rally driver, he still competed in some circuit racing events, successfully in two World Sportscar Championship events and also in a few races for Eddie Jordan's British Formula Three Championship team. Jordan called Toivonen's performances "incredible" and compared him to Ayrton Senna. Incredibly rare autographed postcard, showing Toivonen in the Lombard Esso Scottish Rally from 1979. Toivonen's autograph (like Senna's) changed over his career. Please note, this postcard has been copied by the original owner and some have fed onto ebay as original. This one is the original, sourced from a Finnish Journalist. Rare.