RIP Ove Andersson 1938-2008 - Brindabella Motor Sport Club

Lyndall · 12-06-2008, 01:04 AM

As posted on the SA Rally e-Group:

Quote:

Article taken from GrandPrix.com: http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns20456.html

It is with great regret that we must report the death of one of motorsport's
most extraordinary characters Ove Andersson, a legend in the rallying world
who went on to become the force behind Toyota's motorsport activities for
more than 30 years. He was the Toyota F1 team principal until his retirement. He was 70 years of age.

His co-driver Tubby Bennett was injured in the accident, which occurred when
a minibus pulled out into his path on a bend near Oudtshoorn, not far from
Andersson's home in the coastal city of George, in the Western Cape in South
Africa.

Andersson was taking part in the Continental Milligan Vintage Trial, an
event for pre-1960 cars. He was driving a 1957 Volvo 444.

Ove came from a humble background. He was born in the city of Uppsala in
January 1938 and grew up on a remote farm, cycling four miles each way to
school on his mother's old bicycle. After his father acquired a 98cc
motorcycle Andersson developed an interest in machinery - and in speed. He
had several impressive accidents but survived with cuts and bruises and won
a place to study engineering in Uppsala, 30 miles from his home village.
While he was there he saw his first ice races and was soon working as a
marshal on the Hedemora circuit, where the Swedish Grand Prix was held for
cars and bikes. He soon grew tired of travelling each day to Uppsala and
quit school and began working as an assistant to a blacksmith, while
continuing his education with a correspondence course. Moving on to a local
automobile repair shop, he impressed the owner with his abilities on a
motorbike. He encouraged the youngster to go racing, which did not impress
Ove's parents.

In 1958 Andersson did his national service and stayed on to become a member
of the United Nations peace-keeping force in the Gaza Strip, where he
survived typhoid and a fire while he was in hospital. When he returned to
Sweden he found it hard to settle down and tried for other UN postings. To
kill time he began repairing Saabs and a friend suggested that they club
together to take part in a rally called the Roslagsvalsen. They finished
sixth, a dramatic achievement which drew Andersson to the attention of the
local rallying community. With very little money he needed to find a job
with one of the factory teams. This was tough but when his friend Bengt
Soderstrom became a Saab works driver he was able to borrow parts from the
factory and thus become more competitive. He was offered the opportunity to
go with the UN to Congo, but turned it down in order to concentrate on his
driving career. His first works drive was actaully with a Mini Cooper in the
1963 Swedish Rally and this was sufficiently successful for Ford's rally
boss Stuart Turner to offer him a Mini Cooper S for the RAC Rally. He was
then signed by Saab for 1964 and soon afterwards became much more
competitive when a co-driver suggested he get some glasses to help him see
better.

In those days rallying was very different and Andersson and his co-driver
drove from Sweden to Athens to take part in the Acropolis Rally. He stayed
with Saab in 1965 but was soon stuck in the shadow of Erik Carlsson, who
Andersson believed always had better machinery. As a result he wrote a
letter to Cesare Fiorio offering his services for the 1966 season and was
taken on by Lancia for the first three events. He finished third in all
three. At the same time he rallied for Ford in the Swedish national
championship and that year won the Swedish Rally in a Lotus Cortina. The
following year he was second for Lancia on the Monte Carlo and won in Spain.
He also won the Gulf London Rally with a Lotus Cortina. That year he shared
a Lancia with Sandro Munari in the Targa Florio. He signed to drive for Ford
in 1968, but began the year racing for Lancia in the Daytona 24 Hours and
competing on the Monte Carlo Rally. That year he shared a Lotus-Cortina with
Roger Clark on the London-Sydney marathon and dominated the event until the final phase in Australia where mechanical trouble ruined their hopes of
victory. His next major win came in the Welsh Rally in 1969 in a Ford
Escort. At the end of 1970 he was approached by Alpine and asked to join the
French company's rallying operation and he was dominant at the start of 1971
with victories on the Monte Carlo, San Remo, Acropolis and Austrian rallies.
In 1972, partnered by Jean Todt, he finished second on the Monte Carlo.

In the middle of that year he was contacted by Toyota, via his co-driver
David Stone, and was asked to drive for Toyota on the RAC Rally. He went to
Japan to meet the top management and thus began a relationship which ended only when Toyota was established in Formula 1. Initially he established
Andersson Motorsport in his native Sweden and began running the Toyota rally programme but in 1975 moved the team to Brussels where it became Toyota Team Europe, funding coming from Toyota dealers around Europe. That year the team scored its first World Championship victory with Hannu Mikkola and his co-driver Atso Aho winning the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland in a Toyota Corolla Levin. The team moved on to Cologne in Germany in 1979. Ove contined to compete himself, winning the Safari Rally in 1975 for Peugeot before running Toyota machinery between 1975 and 1980, with co-driver Henry Liddon, who would become one of his chief assistants at Team Toyota Europe.

It was not until the 1980s that the team began to win on a regular basis,
being most successful on the African rallies with drivers Bjorn Waldegaard
and Juha Kankkunen. In 1987 the team moved into a new purpose-built facility
which remains its headquarters today, but that same year lost Liddon in a
plane crash during one of the African events.

In 1990 Carlos Sainz gave the organisation victory in the World Rally
Championship with the Toyota Celica 4WD and that success was repeated in
1992. The following year the Toyota Motor Corporation bought the team from
Andersson and it became Toyota Motorsport GmbH. Juha Kankkunen won the World Championship and Toyota took the first Manufacturers,Äô title to be won by a Japanese firm. This double success was repeated with Didier Auriol in 1994 although the following year the team was caught using illegal turbo
restrictors on the Catalunya Rally in Spain. The team admitted that the
parts had been illegal but it was clear that Andersson knew nothing about
the activities. He admitted that his mistake had been to give his technical
director too much freedom. The team was banned from competing for 12 months by the FIA but Andersson retained control. Toyota returned to the World Rally Championship in 1996 but its dominance had by then been lost.

At the start of 1997 Toyota began to recruit staff for an assault on the Le
Mans 24 Hours race, with the long term aim being to enter Formula 1. The
Toyota GT-One sport car was ready for the 1998 Le Mans and Toyota hired an impressive driver line-up including former Grand Prix drivers Thierry
Boutsen, Martin Brundle and Ukyo Katayama. The 3.6-litre twin-turbo V8
engined cars were fast but were beaten in both 1998 and 1999.

At the end of 1999 Toyota announced that it was closing down the World Rally Championship team in order to concentrate on the planned Formula 1
programme. The team secured an entry and Andersson led Panasonic Toyota
Racing into Formula 1 in 2002. He stood down in 2003 but worked as a
consultant to the team. At the end of last year he decided to leave Germany,
his adopted home, and moved to South Africa, hoping for a better climate. He
settled in George and was very happy with his decision.

Ove was married three times and leaves a son and a daughter. His son Fredrik
works as an engineer at Renault F1 and his daughter Sophie works in
advertising. His second wife Elizabeth Nystrom, who was his co-driver in
several events, went on to become a Swedish member of parliament.

"Everyone at Toyota is extremely shocked and truly saddened at this terrible
news," said George Yamashina, chairman of Toyota Motorsport GmbH. "Ove was an inspiration to our team and to many in motorsport. His passion for
motorsport was legendary and he is a great loss to our sport. The thoughts
of everyone at Toyota Motorsport are with Ove's family at this difficult
time."

heyehy · 12-06-2008, 01:35 AM

oh wow. another great gone. sigh. a minutes silence. . . . .

rowdytoot · 12-06-2008, 06:53 AM

RIP - A true legend of the sport

bob moore · 12-06-2008, 09:25 AM

GrandPrix.com sure got this right: "one of motorsport's most extraordinary characters ............ a legend in the rallying world".

What an incredible life.

RIP