Tulpenrallye 1958

The story of 1958: The tenth running held ten special tests and ten special stages. The organisers hoped beforehand that a fourth ten would follow, in the form of the mark the competitors gave it. The 219 entries were split between the competition class (202) and the touring class (17), where no times were taken on the special stages. Dutch entries (76) and English ones (70) were both down on previous years. Four Mercedes 300 SLs came to the start, among them the Dutchman Hans Tak's, sharing with Niemöller. Ian Appleyard, successful in earlier years, was back with Bleakley in a Jaguar 3.4. The largest engine in the field was the 5,440cc of the Carstedts' Ford Fairlane. The first two tests were laid out at the Nürburgring, from the Schwalbenschwanz to the Karussell and from Breidscheid to the Gegengerade. In the Vosges the first twenty kilometres near Le Hohwald had to be re-signed because the road was impassable under deep snow; a blizzard was blowing as the rally came through. The third test was the Ballon d'Alsace on the Sunday, approached from Giromagny. Through the Jura the route went on to the Swiss border. At Gex began the second night's running, later remembered as the Night of Horrors. There was a test of a good ten kilometres on the Col de la Faucille, then a very hard special stage from the Faucille to Le Port at an average of 70 kilometres an hour. Twenty-one kilometres later came the stage from Saint-Martin to Belley, and then stages in the Auvergne and from Lamastre to Tournon. After a short rest at Valence the second day opened with the climb of the Col du Pin, followed by the stage to Dunières. By way of the Col du Rousset and Chamrousse the crews ran to Chambéry, and then the stage from Belley back to Saint-Martin. Through Champagnole and Besançon they reached Belfort, where the third night began. That night through the Vosges was punishing, above all for the fog and the heavy rain, and the crews were thoroughly worn out by the time they reached Luxembourg the next day; a great many retired during it. After an hour's rest came a test and the 100-kilometre Thousand Bends stage. The last test lay at Francorchamps, after which the crews ran through a control at the Philips recreation centre in Eindhoven and on to Noordwijk. Looking back, this tenth edition was indeed the best of all the Tulpenrallyes held up to then. Two English Rileys went off at the Nürburgring. The first, of Brooks and Sutcliffe, crashed just after the start and was put back on the road by a group of spectators. The same happened to father and son Brookes, three kilometres further on; the elder Brookes walked back to the start and asked that same group to walk the three kilometres and help them too. They did, and the crew eventually reached Noordwijk, where they thanked their helpers all over again. After the first three tests four crews were still unpenalised: Tak, Carstedt, Anderssen and Skogh. Tak then struck trouble when a crack in the exhaust manifold let carbon monoxide into the car, forcing them to drive with the roof open in exceptionally foul weather. The rally was hard on everyone: 77 crews had retired after six tests. Tak and Niemöller gave up on the Ballon d'Alsace when a broken dynamo was added to the exhaust, Ian Appleyard retired during the third night, and the Carstedts, well placed, went out at Luxembourg with a failed fuel pump. Several Dutch crews did particularly well: Schorr and Poll in a Porsche, Coenen and Butter in a Ford, Jetten senior and Van Noordwijk in a Vauxhall, Visser and Van Renkum in a Peugeot, and Gatsonides and Jetten junior in a Standard Ten. Only 24 crews reached the finish without penalties. The classification was settled largely out on the road this time, and the closing test at Zandvoort had little further influence on it. The rally was overshadowed by two fatal accidents. On the stage to Dunières the Saab of the Swedes Weider and Richardson ran into a tractor; a Dutch doctor was on the scene at once, but Weider died the next day. On the closing test at Zandvoort, Werner Engel was killed. He had been European champion in 1955 and had not wanted to miss the tenth Tulpenrallye. The prize-giving was a subdued affair in the circumstances. The German mixed crew of Günther Kolwes and Ruth Lautmann won the rally in a Volvo. Madeleine Blanchoud and Renée Wagner took the ladies' prize in an Auto Union 1000, while the Dutch team won the Nations Trophy with Poll, Coenen, Schorr, Jetten junior, Gatsonides and Butter. Schorr and Poll were the best-placed Dutchmen, third overall in a Porsche.