The 1986 World Rally Championship was the 14th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 13 rallies, including all twelve venues of the previous season as well as the addition of the Olympus Rally. This marked the return of the WRC to the United States and North America, as well as the first world rally to be held on the western side of the continent. The December rally would also be the only WRC event to feature Group B competition in the United States.
The 1986 season was notable for being the last World Rally Championship season driven with the popular Group B rally cars, which were banned after the fatal crashes at the Rally Portugal, where three spectators were killed and more than 30 injured, and at the Tour de Corse, where Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto died in a fireball accident. This was the year where Group B (first introduced in 1982) was at its peak, and the 1986 season saw some of the most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built, some of which were mid-engined, like the Lancia Delta S4 and the Ford RS200. The drivers' championship was won by Peugeot's Juha Kankkunen, followed by two other "Flying Finns", Lancia's Markku Alén and Kankkunen's teammate Timo Salonen. The manufacturers' title was taken by Peugeot, after a close battle with the Martini-sponsored Lancia team.
Summary
The season began with the Monte Carlo Rally and Henri Toivonen took the win with his Lancia Delta S4, making himself the favourite for the title. At the International Swedish Rally in wintery snow and ice, Toivonen had to retire due to an engine failure and Juha Kankkunen won the event with his Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2, ahead of Toivonen's teammate Markku Alén. At the next rally in Portugal, Joaquim Santos lost control of his Ford RS200 and plunged into the crowd, killing three spectators and injuring more than 30. All the factory team drivers decided to withdraw from the race, giving the win to home country's relatively unknown driver, Joaquim Moutinho.
After veteran Swede Björn Waldegård's triumph at the extremely arduous and difficult Safari Rally in Kenya driving a Toyota Celica TCT over Alén and his Lancia 037 Evo (which was the S4's predecessor and used only by Lancia for the Safari Rally; the S4 was not used for the Safari Rally due to Lancia determining that it was too new and not developed enough for that rally), another fatal accident at the Tour de Corse on the French island of Corsica would change the course of rallying. Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto in their Lancia went off the side of the road, plunged down a ravine and landed on its roof. The aluminium fuel tank underneath the driver's seat was ruptured by the trees and exploded. Toivonen and Cresto had no time to get out and both men burned to death in their seats. The accident had no witnesses close enough to clearly see the accident.
This caused Jean-Marie Balestre and the FISA to immediately freeze the development of the Group B cars and ban them from competing for the 1987 season. Audi and Ford decided to withdraw from competing, while other teams continued with their Group B models until the end of the season. Peugeot boss Jean Todt was outraged over the ban and pursued legal action against the federation. After Lancia's remaining car retirement, the Tour de Corse was eventually won by Peugeot's Bruno Saby, which marked his career-first WRC victory. The Acropolis Rally in Greece and the New Zealand Rally were won consecutively by Kankkunen; and the third driver to take his debut win during the season was Lancia's Miki Biasion, who edged out teammate Alén to win the Rally Argentina.
Finnish drivers finished first, second and third in the Jyväskylä Rally (otherwise known as the Finnish Rally, the fastest race of the year), with Salonen and Kankkunen giving Peugeot a 1-2 result, with Alén coming in third for Lancia. This was not much of a surprise, as this rally had only ever been won by Finnish and Swedish drivers until 1990. The Ivory Coast Rally, which was considered to be the most demanding, gruelling and certainly the most attrition-filled rally of the year (a rally where drivers had an unbelievable one in ten chance of finishing) was skipped by all of the Group B teams except Toyota, and was won by Waldegård in his Celica, completing his World Championship African rally sweep. The season included more controversy when the organizers of the Rallye Sanremo disqualified the entire Peugeot team from the event due to illegal side skirts. However, the cars were proven legal by the FIA, and the Italian organizers were blamed for not allowing French Peugeots to take the win ahead of the Italian Lancias. Eventually, the FISA annulled the results of the whole event. Peugeot then became the manufacturers' champions, but Kankkunen was not sure about his title over Alén until three weeks after the season ended, at the RAC Rally in the United Kingdom, specifically Wales and England. Salonen won this race, with Alen finishing second and Kankkunen third, this was enough for Kankkunen to take the Driver's Championship. The last WRC round of the year was the first Olympus Rally in the state of Washington in the northwest United States, which Alén won, with Kankkunen finishing second.
1986 marked the only season in which the FIA issued the World Championship for Drivers of Group A Cars. Swede Kenneth Eriksson, driving a Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V took the title ahead of Austrian Rudi Stohl in his Audi Coupé Quattro, a lower powered version of the Group B Quattros. This championship became unnecessary in future years due to the elimination of Group B cars. From 1987 onwards, Group A cars would be the vehicles used by drivers competing for the main World Rally Championship for Drivers.
Calendar
Rd.Start dateFinish dateRallyRally headquartersSurfaceStagesDistancePoints118 January24 January 54th Rallye Automobile Monte-CarloMonte CarloMixed36881.20 kmDrivers & Manufacturers214 February16 February 36th International Swedish RallyKarlstad, Värmland CountySnow30556.79 kmDrivers & Manufacturers35 March8 March 20th Rallye de Portugal - Vinho do PortoEstoril, LisbonMixed48703.50 kmDrivers & Manufacturers429 March2 April 34th Marlboro Safari RallyNairobiGravelN/A4190 kmDrivers & Manufacturers51 May3 May 30th Tour de Corse - Rallye de FranceAjaccio, CorsicaTarmac301122.34 kmDrivers & Manufacturers62 June4 June 33rd Bosch Acropolis RallyAthensGravel46689.92 kmDrivers & Manufacturers75 July8 July 17th AWA Clarion Rally of New ZealandAucklandGravel35597.76 kmDrivers & Manufacturers86 August9 August 6th Marlboro Rally of ArgentinaBuenos AiresGravel27624.35 kmDrivers & Manufacturers95 September7 September 36th Rally of the 1000 LakesJyväskylä, Central FinlandGravel48389.97 kmDrivers & Manufacturers1024 September27 September 18th Rallye Cote d'IvoireYamoussoukroGravelN/A3763 kmDrivers only1113 October17 October 28th Rallye SanremoSanremo, LiguriaMixed40532.60 kmDrivers & Manufacturers1216 November19 November 42nd Lombard RAC RallyBath, SomersetGravel45515.04 kmDrivers & Manufacturers134 December7 December 14th Toyota Olympus RallyTacoma, WashingtonGravel40540.65 kmDrivers onlySources:
Teams and drivers Team Manufacturer Car Tyre Drivers Rounds Peugeot Talbot Sport Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2 Timo Salonen 1–3, 5–7, 9, 11–12 Juha Kankkunen 1–4, 6–9, 11–13 Bruno Saby 1, 5–6, 8, 11 Michèle Mouton 1, 5 Shekhar Mehta 4 Stig Blomqvist 9 Andrea Zanussi 11 Paolo Alessandrini 11 Mikael Sundström 12 Jon Woodner 13 Audi Sport Audi Quattro Sport S1 Walter Röhrl 1, 3, 6 Hannu Mikkola 1, 6 Rudi Stohl 1, 3–4, 6–8, 10–11 Mikael Ericsson 2 Gunner Pettersson 2 Malcolm Stewart 7 Wilfred Wiedner 10 Adolphe Choteau 10 Harald Demuth 12 John Buffum 13 Martini Lancia Lancia Delta S4Rally 037 evo* Markku Alén 1–9, 11–13 Henri Toivonen 1–3, 5 Miki Biasion 1, 3–8, 11 Vic Preston Jr 4 Greg Criticos 4 John Hellier 4 Mikael Ericsson 6–7, 9, 12 Jorge Recalde 8 Kalle Grundel 9 Dario Cerrato 11 Paolo Alessandriani 13 Austin Rover World Rally Team MG Metro 6R4 Tony Pond 1, 3, 5, 11–12 Malcolm Wilson 1–3, 5, 9, 11–12 Per Eklund 2, 9, 12 Marc Duez 3, 11–12 Didier Auriol 5 Harri Toivonen 9, 12 David Llewellin 12 Jimmy McRae 12 Citroën Compétitions Citroën BX 4TC Jean-Claude Andruet 1–2, 6 Philippe Wambergue 1–2, 6 Maurice Chomat 6 Ford Motor Co Ltd Ford RS200 Stig Blomqvist 2–3, 6, 12 Kalle Grundel 2–3, 6, 12 Joaquim Santos 3 Mark Lovell 12 Stig Andervang 12 Toyota Team Europe Toyota Celica TCT Björn Waldegård 4, 10, 13 Erwin Weber 4, 10 Lars-Erik Torph 4, 10, 13 Robin Ulyate 10 Steve Millen 13 Opel Euro Team Opel Manta 400 Basil Criticos 4, 8 Mazda Rally Team Europe Mazda Familia 4WD Ingvar Carlsson 1–2, 9, 12 Achim Warmbold 1 Rod Millen 7, 13 Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi Franz Wittmann 1, 3–6, 8 Kenneth Eriksson 1–9, 11–12 Fuji Heavy Industries Subaru RX Turbo Mike Kirkland 4, 7 Possum Bourne 4, 7, 13 Frank Tundo 4, 7 Renault Elf Philips Renault 11 Turbo Jean Ragnotti 5, 11 Škoda Motorsport Škoda Škoda 130 LR Ladislav Krecek 6, 9 Svatopluk Kvaizar 6, 9Major entries not registered as manufacturers Jolly Club Fiat Uno Turbo Giovanni del Zoppo 1, 3, 5–6, 11 Michele Rayneri 1, 5–6, 11 Alex Fiorio 1, 3, 5, 11 Team Nissan EuropeNissan240RS Jayant Shah4 George Moschous6 Stratis Hatzipanayiotou6 Reg Cook7 Paddy Davidson7 Alain Ambrosino10 Louise Aitken-Walker12 Société DiacRenaultR5 Maxi Turbo François Chatriot5 Rothmans Porsche Rally Team Porsche 911SC RS Saeed Al-Hajri 6 Lancia ran out of time to build the safari version of the Delta S4
Events
Map Black = Tarmac Brown = Gravel Blue = Snow/ice Red = Mixed surface
Schedule and results