WRC's 1st World Champion for Driver's Björn Waldegård dead.
Posted by john vanlandingham
John Vanlandingham Professional Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Björn Waldegård, 1st official World Champion ---1973---and generall all round nice guy has dies in his home town of Rö, 5 km South of Rimbo, the heart of rally country Norh of Stockholm..
He was 71.... I met him very briefly in 1974 on his farm where he was nice enough to let us local cross idiots set up a nice challenging sand track on a corner of the farm and charged us nothing...almost blushing when we thnked him..In those days he looked like Kelsey Grahmer or ''Kramer'' from the TV series and was quiet and aw schuck it ainät nothin when we were so happy to have a open track, no hours no nothing...I remember distictly that somebody ran a tractor over the track occasionally to knock down the bumps. None of us had a tractor... In his old age he set up a training facility which somehow he got local planning permission to do... http://www.waldegard.se/
One by one they go... PS I would like to point out to folks that here's a guy who has done more, (First rally 1962, last 1990 Safari --ending with a win) at a higher level, longer than anybody here, even our local heroes who dominated in the locker equipped cars with Tokico junk suspension.......a man who was the best in the world in the great Group 4 Escorts in the mid 70s----- and one has to concede ''knows'' a thing or 2 more than any of us, and when he set up HIS motorsport facility, the cars he chose as the standard basic instrctional car was what? Volvo 240. Something to reflect on. John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
Albert Kun Super Moderator Location: SF Ca. Join Date: 01/07/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,732 Rally Car: volvo 242 |
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Donald Wong Elite Moderator Location: Richmond, CA Join Date: 01/25/2006 Age: Ancient Posts: 55 Rally Car: 1980 Toyota Corolla |
Rest in Peace Mr. Waldegard.
 You will be ever one of my rally heroes.www.performanceoptions.net |
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