Monday | 22 Sep 2014

Alén heads Waldegård Stratos tribute

Finnish legend Markku Alén headed a Lancia Stratos tribute to inaugural FIA World Rally champion Björn Waldegård at the Rallyday 2014 show in England on Saturday (20 September).

Markku Alén - demonstrated a Lancia 037

Alén, who won the FIA Drivers’ Cup in 1978, the year before Waldegärd claimed the first drivers’ world title, led a convoy of 14 Stratos cars at Castle Combe race circuit in memory of the Swede, who died last month.

Waldegärd, who took three of his 16 WRC wins in the Italian supercar, had been due to drive a Stratos at the show to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Alén also demonstrated a Lancia 037, the car he drove in the WRC in the 1980s, and the Toyota Celica GT4 in which he finished fourth in the 1992 RAC Rally in Britain.

M-Sport’s Elfyn Evans drove a WRC-liveried Ford Fiesta R5 in the headline Castol Edge Feature Stage. The Welshman, currently eighth in the WRC standings, was accompanied by father Gwyndaf, the 1996 British champion, who was at the wheel of a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 05.

Elfyn Evans - in a WRC-liveried Ford Fiesta R5

M-Sport also displayed Mikko Hirvonen’s 2010 Rallye Monte-Carlo winning Fiesta S2000 and the Ford Focus WRC in which Colin McRae won the 1999 Safari Rally.

“It’s nice to see the Focus that Colin drove on the Safari in 1999 on display,” said Elfyn Evans. “It’s obviously a special car to M-Sport. It’s the first car that won with them and now it’s restored fully in the form that it won the Safari. It’s a pretty cool car.”

The event also celebrated the 30th anniversary of the MG Metro 6R4. Harri Toivonen (pictured bottom) and double British champion David Llewellin drove and the team that built the original car was reunited for the day.

Other stars in attendance included ex-Ford and Peugeot works driver Markko Märtin, who drove an ex-McRae Subaru Impreza WRC and Richard Tuthill’s new Porsche 997 RGT, and the Scot’s world champion co-driver, Nicky Grist.

Photographs courtesy of RallyingOnline Ltd - www.rallygallery.com

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