Biography

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Tommi Mäkinen, the one of four sons of Jukka Mäkinen, born in Puuppola, near Jyväskylä(the home town of  NESTE RALLY OF FINLAND), Finland, in 26th June 1964. Tommi started competing in farm tractor events and became the national champion in 1982 and 1985.

In 1985 he bought his first rally car, a second-hand Ford Escort RS 2000. In 1986 he competed in 20 events. In 1987 his took part in his first World Rally Championship event, the 1000 Lakes Rally. His first success came in 1988 when he won the Finnish Gr.N rally championship. Also in 1988 season he took part and in some European events.

In 1990 he had a new co-driver, Seppo Harjanne (the 1985 World Rally Champion with Timo Salonen), and competed in five rounds of the World Rally Championship with a Gr.N Mitsubishi Galant VR-4. He won three of them and finished third in the World Gr.N Rally Championship.
in 1991 he finished in 6th place in his home event with a Manza 323 GTX. The next year he moved to the Nissan team, and compited in four events. In the rally of Finland he a very good performance, winning some stages with the Nissan Sunny GTI-R, before he retired with gearbox problems. Even though the japanese manufacturer announced the withdraw of the team from the WRC. The next year he competed in three events with the Lancia Astra Team. He had some impressive results for a private car. He finished in fourth place in both Sweden and Finland and in sixth in the Acropolis Rally, in his first visit in Greece.
In 1994 in the middle of the seasons he moved to Ford and competed in the Rally of Finland, replacing the Ford's regular driver Miki Biasion, and won it with Seppo Harjanne. This was his first World Rally Championship win. These results secured his next year contract with the Mitsubishi Ralliart Team.
The great success of his career was during the years 1996-1999 when he won four consecutive Championships with the team of Mitsubishi Ralliart. He is the only rally driver who done that yet.
In November of 2001 he made a contact with Subaru World Rally Team.
In 2002 he became the most succesful rally driver ever after winning the Monte Carlo rally, for forth consecutive time, and he has 24 wins, one more from Carlos, McRae and Juha who have 23.