Tulpenrallye 1949

The story of 1949: The first Tulpenrallye was organised by a committee chaired by Lex van Strien, with Jos van Calsteren as secretary. It was above all a star rally, in which crews had to cover a route at a set average speed, so the total driving time differed from crew to crew. At the finish there was barely a classification to speak of — 121 of the 138 crews arrived without a single penalty point — and the result was decided mainly by the closing test at the Zandvoort circuit. Crews had to take part in that test in the same car they had driven the rally with. Even so, a number of them tried to gain an advantage by altering their brakes and steering. Most were caught by the post-event scrutineering and a handful of protests, and penalised. Prince Bernhard attended the closing test at Zandvoort. For the first time, times there were taken by an electronic recording device from Philips. The test consisted of a 90-metre run along the main straight, ending in a sharp turn, after which the crews charged back to the finish. The return route through the Netherlands ran through Brabant, Gelderland, Overijssel, Friesland and North Holland, and then reached Noordwijk by way of the bulb fields. The police put six cars on the road to escort the rally and close junctions where needed. They also set lost crews back on the right track, and the competitors were full of praise for the many officials. The entry list held around 100 Dutch crews and 60 from abroad. Peter van der Wansem and Frans Vrijaldenhoven were part of a team of three Austin A40s, with the Maasbode journalist Martin Duyzings riding along as a passenger. One of the three Austins belonged to Vrijaldenhoven senior, who wondered after the rally where the holes in his roof had come from: his son had fixed an aerial there for the short-wave sets that kept the cars in touch with one another. Their route ran from The Hague to Lyon by way of Paris (Place Vendôme), Bordeaux and Clermont-Ferrand, and back through Charleville, Troyes and Reims to Brussels (Boulevard des Arts), then on through Breda, Arnhem and Leeuwarden to the finish at Noordwijk. They took 59 hours over those near enough 3,000 kilometres. The closing test at Zandvoort looked like being settled between Klaas Barendregt's Gatso, Koks's Volkswagen, the Briton Appleyard's Jaguar, the Czech Minors and the Simca of the Frenchwoman Madame Trouis. Just as everyone was waiting for the result to come out between them, the Ford works driver Ken Wharton spoiled the party by winning the test on 58.65 points. Wharton had set only a moderate time in the morning run — the test had to be driven twice, morning and afternoon — but spent the hours in between practising the 180-degree turn around the pole halfway along, elsewhere in Zandvoort. Noordwijk was decked out with tulips and flower arrangements for the arrival, although most residents stayed indoors, not least because of the cold. The pairing of Wharton and Cooke, running as number 139, won the first Tulpenrallye in a Ford Anglia. The Coupe des Dames went to Madame M. Trouis and Mrs C. Gatsonides-Hofhuis, ahead of Mrs G.G. van Puyenbroek-Vroom, Mrs E. de Marez Oyens-van Vredenburch and Miss E.J. Schellerd in a Ford.