Kalle Ebb

5/9/1896 - 22/8/1988

Record updated 04-Jun-08

Born Karl Alfred Ebb in Turku, fifth largest city in Finland, Kalle was Finland's first international racing driver.

He and his wife Lempi Järvinen started a textile factory, Ebb-Solmio Oy, in 1920, specialising in making high quality ties and supplying upmarket men's outfitters.

Kalle Ebb was an all-round sportsman who competed in athletics, cycling and swimming. He finished 5th in the hurdles at the Paris Olympics in 1924. Kalle was also a pioneer of Finnish alpine skiing in the 1930s and was the founder of the Finnish slalom association in 1941.

He started competing in Scandinavia with an Auburn and won the 1931 Swedish GP in a field that included Rudolf Caracciola driving a Mercedes SSK.

Kalle switched to a SSK in 1933 and went on to win the Finnish Grand Prix that year. He continued with the SSK and took another with in the Finnish GP in 1935 as well as winning the Estonian GP that year as well.

His only child, Heimo, a son born during his first marriage, was killed in July 1944 during WWII

In 1945 he married his long time office manager Märtha Charlotte Reikko.

A trust fund was established in 1994 in the name of Kalle and Märtha Ebb to the promotion Finnish alpine skiing and to support alpine skiers competing at junior level in Finland and abroad.