The late rallyist Timo Mäkinen is to be honoured at this year’s Coventry MotoFest, held from Saturday, June 3 to Sunday, Jun 4.
During the show, Mäkinen’s 1965 Monte Carlo rally winning Mini Cooper S will take on the ‘Bennetts Sprint Circuit’; on Saturday, June 3, MotoFest organisers will also run a competition to find a passenger for a run around the circuit, reliving co-driver Paul Easter’s view from the Mini’s cockpit.
The competition will run across Coventry Motofest’s social media channels – specifically Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
The Mini Cooper S, run in collaboration with the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, will carry its famous AJB 44B number plate as it did back in 1965, when it claimed victory in Monte Carlo despite some of the most extreme blizzard conditions experienced that season.
In spite of this, Mäkinen’s car completed the route with only one lateness penalty on the road sections, caused by a minor electrical failure in the ignition system and on the run from the starting points to Monte Carlo, AJB 44B was the only car not to receive any penalties.
James Noble, Coventry Motofest Festival Director, said: “We thank the British Motor Museum for their assistance in enabling us to honour the memory of ‘Flying Finn’ Timo Mäkinen by running his Monte Carlo Rally winning Mini Cooper S at Coventry Motofest.
“It will be the second successive year we have run an iconic Mini Cooper S on the Bennetts Sprint Circuit, having again successfully partnered with the British Motor Museum to run Paddy Hopkirk’s 1964 Monte Carlo Rally winning car, a car responsible for one of the greatest triumphs in motorsport history.”
The passenger ride competition will be announced online by MotoFest’s organisers in due course.
