Leo
Kinnunen

Leo Kinnunen was born in Tampere on 5 August 1943 and died on 26 July 2017. He began on motorcycles and moved to cars in the early 1960s. He competed in rallying, autocross and ice racing, finished runner-up in the Finnish Rally Championship and entered the Finnish Formula 3 series in 1967 and 1968. In 1969 he won the Nordic Challenge Cup, the forerunner of the Interserie.

After testing a Porsche 917, he was signed by the JWA team for the 1970 World Sportscar Championship. Alongside Pedro Rodríguez he won races at Daytona, Brands Hatch, Monza and Watkins Glen. At the 1970 Targa Florio, with Rodríguez ill, he drove the Porsche 908/03 and set a lap of 33:36, which remains the fastest ever recorded on the Sicilian road circuit. He then drove a Porsche 917 for the Finnish AAW Racing Team and was Interserie champion in 1971, 1972 and 1973. In 1973 he also finished third in the 1000 Lakes Rally.

In 1974 Kinnunen became the first Formula One driver from Finland, racing a Surtees TS16 under the AAW Racing Team name. Of six entries, only one led to a start. At the team's first race, in Nivelles, he failed to qualify. In Sweden he qualified 25th and was allowed to start by special exception, as normally only 24 drivers were permitted. He retired after eight laps with a spark plug problem. He did not qualify in France, Britain, Italy or Austria, and the team then withdrew from Formula One. He was the last driver to compete in Formula One wearing an open-face helmet.

In the World Sportscar Championship he drove a Porsche 908 Turbo for Martini Racing in 1975 and took third at the Nürburgring with Herbert Müller. In 1976 he finished second at Watkins Glen in a Porsche 934 Turbo alongside Egon Evertz. He ended his circuit racing career in 1977 and won the Arctic Rally in 1979.

Source: Wikipedia, “Leo Kinnunen”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.