Top five rallying scandals
1st December 2011By Anthony Peacock
The news that World Rally Championship commercial rights holder Vladimir Antonov has been arrested moved the WRC off the sports pages and into the gossip section, but it's not the first time that rallying and controversy have been closely associated. While some are up in arms, we maintain that all publicity is good publicity. After all, who could forget the following priceless moments?
Frozen koalas thrown at drivers: Australia 2009
Environmentalists have strange tastes – and we're not just talking about the sort of lentil and alfalfa stew that is beloved by hippies the world over. No, Australian tree-huggers decided that the best way to save the planet (or specifically the nature reserves of the Gold Coast, visited by Rally Australia for the first time in 2009) was to throw icy koala corpses at competing drivers. It was meant to symbolise the wanton destruction of natural habitat rather than an interesting new experimental flavour of popsicle.
Toyota caught cheating: 1995
There's nothing wrong with cheating providing you don't get caught – and that's where Toyota went wrong at the end of 1995. Its ingenuity – or deviousness, depending on which way you want to look at it – consisted of a turbo restrictor that cleverly enlarged itself whenever the bonnet of the car was closed, but then reverted to the mandatory size whenever the bonnet was opened. It was almost infallible – until an eagle-eyed Spanish scrutineer spotted the problem (as well, no doubt, as the opportunity to boost Carlos Sainz's title prospects). Mass hara-kiri within Toyota followed.
Sanremo Rally excluded from 1986 championship
Here's a fabulous tale of protests backfiring. To cut a long story short, Peugeot was accused of running illegal sideskirts on the 205 T16, which according to the Sanremo scrutineers, had an aerodynamic benefit rather than merely constituting bodywork protection (which is what Peugeot alleged at the time). The French team was thrown out of the rally but appealed this to the FIA (who were conveniently based in Paris too). The FIA concluded that the fairest course of action was to expunge the Sanremo Rally from the championship, after the season had finished, which resulted in Lancia driver Markku Alen being stripped of the title after just 11 days. He still describes it as the biggest disappointment of his illustrious career.
Drivers' strike: Portugal 1986
Taking a leaf out of the public sector, the drivers decided to go on strike on the 1986 Portugal Rally, following the fatal accident that claimed the life of spectators when the Ford of Joaquim dos Santos speared off into the crowd. For as long as safety could not be guaranteed, they said, they would not drive. The picket line formed at rally HQ was considerably more civilised than most, with not a placard or burning oil drum in sight.
Vatanen's car stolen: Dakar 1988
The Sahara desert is hardly the ideal environment for joy riding, but to Ari Vatanen's dismay some toe rag stole his motor – a Peugeot 405T16 – while he was dominating the Dakar Rally in 1988. Luckily, the thief was overcome by remorse and abandoned the vehicle a few hours later. That's the official version anyway. The conspiracy theories suggest either that Vatanen's car was so illegal it had to be made to disappear, or that it was stolen to order by one of his rivals. We'll never know the truth, but as one contemporary newspaper report said: "The controversy overshadowed everything else on the event, including Juha Kankkunen's victory."
