Tulpenrallye 1955

The story of 1955: The handicap system grew more complicated again this year. Partly at the request of the French police, a number of secret regularity controls were built into the route. Anyone found to have averaged more than 75 kilometres an hour picked up penalties, and above 85 the crew was excluded altogether. The special stages carried names of their own: Welcome to the Vosges, Morning in the Alps, Twisting through the Jura. Among the favourites were the Dutchman Hans Tak in a Mercedes 300 SL, the Briton Bill Banks in a Bristol, the 1954 European champion Walter Schluter, the German ace Werner Engel — this time in a 300 SL as well — and the Dane Stenfeldt Hansen in the same car. The Dutchmen Den Ouden and Gorris reached the finish in a Citroën 2CV with all of twelve horsepower. Stuttgart was the gathering point this year, after approach routes of some 700 kilometres each. Porsche, Robert Bosch and Mercedes, all based there, gave the crews a warm welcome. The city council received them with a glass of champagne and, later in the day after a free afternoon, with dinner in a hall decked out with five thousand tulips brought over from the Netherlands. Next morning, after a night in Stuttgart, the first special stage started just outside the city and ran for much of its length along the Schwarzwald Hochstrasse. After Freiburg came the first special test, the twelve kilometres up to the summit of the Schauinsland, closed entirely to other traffic. By way of Breisach the caravan crossed back into France. There the second special stage led to Masevaux, taking in the Route des Crêtes and the Route Joffre. After Valence came the second test, the seven-kilometre climb to the Auberge du Pin, and the third went over the Col de la Faucille — where the Dyna-Panhard of the Dutch crew Couwelaar, Hora and Siccema caught fire. The crew were unhurt and got their luggage out just in time, but the second half of the caravan was held up considerably. The return took in the Ballon d'Alsace once again, this time with a new 3.9-kilometre downhill test. From there the route went to Luxembourg, where the Thousand Bends stage finished at Vianden this time. Over roads left in a poor state by a severe winter the crews then made for the Nürburgring and the last special stage: the full circuit including the southern loop, 27 kilometres in all, to be covered in between 22 and 30 minutes. After the customary reception at Philips in Eindhoven they returned to Noordwijk. Pat Moss — whose brother Stirling won the Mille Miglia in Italy the day after the Tulpenrallye started — retired on the approach route with mechanical trouble. Hans Tak was fastest on the Schauinsland even after his handicap, with Martens close behind in an 1,100cc Simca carrying a far lighter one; that duel ran the length of the rally. The experienced pairing of Jetten and Van Noordwijk had a scare on the approach route when they discovered at the German border that Jetten's passport had expired. The customs officers let them through all the same, and on the Monday an official of the Royal Dutch Automobile Club went to the Dutch embassy and sorted it out just in time; Jetten had his passport back at Breisach and could carry on through France. Tak started twenty seconds early on the climb to the Auberge du Pin. Since it came of a misunderstanding with the starter he was not penalised, and his correct start time was used — a decision, and a way of announcing it, that was talked about for a long while afterwards. A hundred and seventeen crews reached Noordwijk without a penalty point, and a good many of them felt this seventh Tulpenrallye had been on the easy side. That gave the closing test at Zandvoort a large say in the result once more. Everyone was divided over ten races of ten laps each, with cars on different handicaps starting together — which made the racing hard for spectators to follow. Corrected for handicap, the Norwegian Greta Molander set the fastest time and climbed from 46th to 9th overall. Jan Martens started his race leading the rally and could hardly lose it. He set off cautiously, having noticed his clutch slipping, came round first at the end of the opening lap and stayed there through lap seven. On the eighth he came past third, and after that he did not come past at all: the clutch had gone entirely, and with the finish and outright victory in sight he had to retire. He had spent months preparing and was bitterly disappointed. Bill Banks went very quickly indeed at Zandvoort, and after his run it was an open question whether Tak could hold on — he needed laps of 2 minutes 9 seconds. His first four came in 2:14, 2:09, 2:08 and 2:09, with the engine making odd noises and smoking heavily. Tak then settled to it properly and produced a fast enough time to become the second Dutch outright winner of the Tulpenrallye. At the celebration Tak made a point of including Martens and Eerligh: he knew he would not have won had the clutch of their Fiat 1100 TV held. He also asked that the class prize he had won be given instead to the second-placed Austin Healey of Herweyer and Boekhout, aware that his 300 SL was very quick and rather too powerful for the class he had entered at the last moment. The Nations Trophy went to Germany again, with Engel among others, while the B.A.R.C. of London — Banks and company — took the club team prize. Maus Gatsonides was the next best-placed Dutchman in fourth, and Greta Molander, ninth overall, won the Coupe des Dames. Saab won the manufacturers' prize from Simca. Piet Jetten and Louis van Noordwijk took two newly instituted awards: the Five Years Cup, for the best-placed Dutch crew over the last five rallies, and the Three Noughts Cup, for finishing three times running without a penalty point.