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Timo Salonen (born October 8, 1951) is a former rally driver from Finland. It was commented of him that he stood out from other drivers, because he was overweight, wore thick glasses and smoked heavily, but still remained one of the fastest and most competitive drivers in the sport.
Salonen's career at World Championship level began with Nissan, mainly on long-distance events. In 1984, however, he achieved a string of top-ten finishes, resulting in his being invited to drive for Peugeot in 1985. He began that year playing a supporting role to Ari Vatanen but quickly proved capable of playing a leading role, especially after Vatanen's near-fatal accident in Argentina. He went on to win the World Championship and remained at Peugeot for 1986, when he finished behind Lancia driver Markku Alen and his team-mate Juha Kankkunen.
In the turbulent world of post-Group B rallying, Salonen starred for Mazda, taking a popular win on the 1987 Swedish Rally. His last WRC event in action was the ´92 Portugal rally in a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 until he made a one time comeback at the 2002 Neste Rally Finland. He managed his Peugeot 206 WRC to 14th place overall.
Finnish
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