Former WRC star Terry Harryman passes away at age 87
One of the defining voices of rallying’s Group B era, Harryman recorded six WRC victories and nine podium finishes from 52 championship starts during a remarkable career spanning more than five decades.
All six victories came alongside Ari Vatanen, with their contrasting personalities helping to form one of the championship’s most memorable driver and co-driver partnerships.
Harryman’s involvement in rallying began alongside Ronnie McCartney in 1962. The pair won the Circuit of Ireland two years later in a Mini Cooper S, before Harryman returned in 1965 to claim a second consecutive victory on the demanding event alongside Paddy Hopkirk.
His WRC debut followed on the 1974 RAC Rally, again with McCartney, before a successful partnership with Malcolm Wilson began towards the end of the decade. Together, they challenged the established Scandinavian crews in Britain and made several appearances at world championship level in Ford Escorts.
Harryman first joined defending world champion Vatanen for the 1982 Swedish Rally, where the pair immediately finished second. Their first WRC victory together arrived the following year on Safari Rally Kenya, guiding an Opel Ascona 400 through one of the sport’s most gruelling contests.
When Vatanen moved to Peugeot, Harryman followed. The combination of Vatanen, Harryman and the revolutionary Peugeot 205 T16 soon became one of the dominant forces of the Group B era.
They ended the 1984 season with three successive victories at Finland’s 1000 Lakes Rally, Sanremo and the RAC Rally. That winning sequence continued into 1985 with triumphs at Rallye Monte-Carlo and in Sweden, giving the pairing five victories from five consecutive WRC starts.
Their Monte-Carlo success became one of the event’s most celebrated fightbacks. An early arrival at a time control resulted in an eight-minute penalty, but Vatanen and Harryman recovered to win by more than five minutes ahead of Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer.
Their push for the 1985 world title ended with a major accident in Argentina, which left both men seriously injured. Harryman recovered to return to competition and partnered Michèle Mouton to the 1986 German Rally Championship in another Peugeot 205 T16.
He reunited with Vatanen for the 1987 1000 Lakes Rally, where they finished second in a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. Further success followed alongside Mark Lovell, with the pair winning the Irish Tarmac and Dutch championships in 1988.
Harryman later combined co-driving with a team management role at the Renault Dealer Team, working alongside Robbie Head during the 1995 season. He continued competing internationally into his sixties, including appearances in the Middle East and at the Dakar Rally, before retiring in 2003.
His proud family legacy continues through his son Allan, who followed him into the co-driver’s seat and remains active in international rallying – regularly partnering Greek driver George Vasilakis on WRC rounds.
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