Björn Waldegård
1979 world champion · Toyota · 1943–2014
The first official world rally champion was already a veteran when Group B began, yet the tall Swede from Rimbo won five world championship rallies in the era, most of them in the punishing African events that rewarded mechanical sympathy as much as speed.
Episode 7 — The Underdogs: Toyota, Opel, Nissan, Mazda, Renault, Citroën, Porsche & Ferrari
Toyota’s endurance specialist and the Celica Twin-Cam Turbo in Africa.
A champion before Group B
Björn Waldegård (12 November 1943 – 29 August 2014) took his first international victory on the 1969 Monte Carlo Rally in a Porsche 911 and took the first drivers’ world championship in 1979, driving for Ford and Mercedes-Benz with Hans Thorszelius beside him. By the time Group B arrived he was in his late thirties and had settled into a long partnership with Toyota.
Toyota’s long-distance weapon
In 1982 Waldegård won Rally New Zealand in a Group 4 Toyota Celica 2000GT and finished third on the Ivory Coast. When Toyota Team Europe introduced the rear-wheel-drive Celica Twin-Cam Turbo, he became its lead driver on the rough events where reliability counted:
- 1983 Ivory Coast Rally – win, the Celica TCT’s first.
- 1984 Safari Rally – win, seven years after his first Safari victory in a Ford Escort.
- 1985 – second on both the Safari and the Ivory Coast, losing the latter to Juha Kankkunen.
- 1986 – wins on the Safari and the Ivory Coast with Fred Gallagher, and fifth on the Olympus Rally.
He also drove odd machinery when the mood took him: a Porsche 911 on the 1982 Monte and a Ferrari 308 GTB on the 1983 Sanremo.
The first world champion, five Group B-era wins and Toyota’s master of the African rallies.
Later career
Waldegård kept racing in Africa with Toyota into the Group A era. His win on the 1990 Safari Rally, aged 46, made him the oldest winner of a world championship rally, a record that stood until Sébastien Loeb won the 2022 Monte Carlo Rally aged 47. He remained a popular figure at historic events until his death in 2014.
Related pages
1984 Safari Rally · 1986 Safari Rally · 1986 Ivory Coast Rally · Hans Thorszelius · Fred Gallagher
Statistics on this page cover world championship rallies from January 1982 to December 1986, excluding the annulled 1986 Rallye Sanremo, and are counted from the entry lists and results in Jonkka’s World Rally Archive. ‘Starts’ means appearances on an entry list.
European and national championships
Waldegård and Hans Thorszelius won the 1985 Boucles de Spa, a round of the Belgian and European championships. He also won the 1984 South Swedish Rally and was second on that year’s Jänner Rallye in Austria in an Audi Quattro A2. See the Belgian championship.
Career in the Group B years
World Rally Championship podiums of the driver, year by year (1982–1986). win 2nd 3rd
5 WRC wins · 8 podium finishes, 1982–1986
In pictures 1 photos
More from Drivers
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN), Björn Waldegård — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rn_Waldeg%C3%A5rd
- Jonkka's World Rally Archive (juwra.com), results and entry lists 1982–1986 — https://www.juwra.com/
- eWRC-results, Björn Waldegård — https://www.ewrc-results.com/
All text is original writing for Grouve Sports Management Group, based on the sources above. Facts checked on 21 October 2026.
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SubscribeThumbnail photos on this page: Liftarn (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain); estoril (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Y.Leclercq (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Original: _morgado / Derivative work: Danyele (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Syrio (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Michel Cromer (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).