Henri Toivonen won the 1980 RAC Rally, the victory that placed him among the WRC’s youngest rally winners.
Driving a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus with co-driver Paul White, Toivonen won the Lombard RAC Rally in Great Britain at just 24 years and 86 days old. He finished more than four minutes ahead of Hannu Mikkola’s Ford Escort RS1800, despite driving a rear-wheel-drive Group 2 car against more powerful Group 4 machinery.
The result was Toivonen’s first World Rally Championship victory and made him the youngest driver to win a world rally at that time. Jari-Matti Latvala later surpassed the record by winning the 2008 Swedish Rally aged 22. Toivonen’s 1980 season also helped Talbot secure a surprise manufacturers’ championship.
A common mix-up is confusing this result with Toivonen’s later RAC Rally win in 1985. The 1980 event was his breakthrough victory; his final RAC win came with Lancia before his death during the 1986 Tour de Corse.