Aaltonen Motorsport - 3 generations of racing
To really understand the respectability that surrounds the name of the Aaltonen Motorsport, one needs to go back to the early days of Finnish independence. Before the Second World War, August Aaltonen began his career in motorcycle racing. In the late 40's he introduced the spectacular sport of speedway racing to the Finnish motorsports fans, and also begun building race bikes for other racers.
At this stage, August's son Rauno entered the scene. Rauno started his career with speedboat racing, winning the Nordic Championship at the age of 16. However he soon turned into motorcycles. He was quite successful with bikes as well, for instance being the first ever Finn to win a TT World Championship event in 1956 in Hedemora, Sweden. Several racing accidents made him consider motorcycles a bit too hazardous and so, in the late 50's he started a rallying with a Saab. At first he had considered car racing only as a hobby, but this was about to change following his formidable achievements, when Mercedes Benz requested him to drive for the factory team. In 1962 Rauno joined forces with BMC driving a Mini Cooper and the legend of the Flying Finns was born. Teamed up with another Finn, Timo Mäkinen and an Irishman Paddy Hopkirk, Rauno and the BMC works cars won pretty much everything there was to win on the European rally special stages and race tracks.
Although Rauno preferred hard surfaces to gravel, and actually was better in racing than rallying, he was the most successful rally driver in the world in the 60's winning more rallies than anybody else. He won the European Rally Championship (equivalent of today's WRC) in 1965. Probably the most recognized single victory was the 1967 Rallye Monte Carlo, where he managed to master the difficult conditions with his Mini Cooper S. Nicknamed The Rally Professor he introduced many new techniques, such as left foot braking to the sport. Rauno kept rallying professionally until the mid 70's, but has participated in many rallies and other forms of racing ever since. Actually, he has raced pretty much everything with an engine in it in an astonishing 127 countries!
After his rally days, Rauno started a new career as a driving instructor. His revolutionary ideas about driving and car dynamics backed by his vast experience of performance driving have made him a legend also in the field of driving techniques. The Rally Professor is still a very busy man: even today his teachings are in extremely high demand all over the world.
The next in line is Rauno's son, Tino. He begun his racing career in the late 80's on the rally special stages, but real success was to follow when he turned to racing. He raced in the Finnish Production Car Championship (Sport 2000), and became known as the fastest touring car racer in Finland. In 1991 he established Aaltonen Motorsport as his own racing team. His team prepared countless extremely successful racing cars for the Finnish and European race tracks. He also raced in the German DTC touring car series with good results. After his active racing career, Tino has followed in his father's footsteps and started giving driving lessons to both average motorists and racers. Today Aaltonen Motorsport Ice Racing School are widely recognized for the giving best teaching available in Europe. Tino has also been instructing for several manufacturers, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW and Mini, to name a few. In addition to Ice Racing School, Aaltonen Motorsport act as Finnish importer of select performance and motorsports products, such as Eibach and K&N.
