Tulpenrallye 1961

The story of 1961: The original intention was to start the rally on Monday 1 May. That, however, was a national holiday in France, and organiser Piet Nortier was therefore unable to muster the gendarmes he needed that day to close off the special tests. The start was moved to Tuesday 2 May (albeit at 00.00 in the middle of the night), which meant that the finish did not come until Friday evening and that the results office then had to work right through the night to be able to publish a classification on Saturday morning. The fastest crew in each class was given zero penalty seconds on every test and special stage. The crews behind them were given penalty points according to the time by which they finished behind the class winner: 1 penalty point for every second. The system was aimed above all at preventing the kind of collusion between crews that had occurred in the previous edition. There were also 60 penalty seconds for every minute late at a (time) control, and various other grounds for penalty points. During the rally the intermediate classification was kept secret from the competitors; this too was intended to prevent collusion. 3000 gendarmes were deployed for the rally, whilst the organisers sent out a further 250 officials. For the second time a national rally was organised. Among the starters were four DAFs, for Roeloffzen, v.d. Berg, Blansjaar and Kouwenberg. A total of 38 competitors started in the 2nd National Tulpenrallye, among them the De Wild brothers in a Volkswagen Beetle carrying number 208. The BMC team entered a particularly strong squad for the international rally, with the Morley brothers (winners of the TR in 1959), Pat Moss and Ann Wisdom, Gold and Hughes, Morris and Elford, and Riley and Ambrose. Other well-known names at the start were Maus Gatsonides and Dries Jetten, the ladies Hall and Domleo, Hans Tak, the Swede Erik Carlsson (Saab) and the Carstedts, husband and wife. Dooijes and Slotemaker did not start because Slotemaker was ill. The British crew Fischer and Rawkins took part in the rally as their honeymoon. 142 competitors started in the International Tulpenrallye. The route was broadly the same as that of 1960. Fifteen special tests and four special stages were included in the rally. After the start the competitors headed straight for the Vosges by way of Luxembourg. On Wednesday night there was a rest halt at the Ripotot hotel in Champagnole, after which the route continued through country that was almost entirely new. On Wednesday afternoon the competitors reached Monte Carlo for a rest halt of 17 hours. An acceleration and braking test was also held there. The return leg consisted in large part of the outward route driven in the opposite direction. The last test was held on the Francorchamps circuit in the Belgian Ardennes. The Vredestein service cars were stationed at seven different points along the route. They also carried the competitors' luggage, and in Monaco the large bus served as the timekeeping post. Tonio Hildebrand had to retire when the organisers handed him a note at Champagnole saying that he could go no further because his driving licence had been temporarily withdrawn. The Germans Umbach and Riesenberg ended up upside down in a ditch. Walter and Steunebrink helped them out of the car, and when this was done a little too roughly the unfortunate Germans warned them to be careful with the Porsche's paintwork. They drove on again later, with a pair of trousers and a pair of shoes hung outside the car so that they could dry. Although the contest was not easy to follow during the rally, since no intermediate standings were published, it gradually became clear who the leading contenders were: Hans Joachim Walter (Porsche) and Carl Magnus Skogh (Saab). Leslie Griffiths and Geoff Mabbs were the unexpected winners of this 13th Tulpenrallye. One of the reasons they won was the new system: they were running in a class without a great many strong rivals and therefore picked up only a few penalty points on the tests where they did not finish first. The only real opposition in their class came from Lewis and Stone, also in a Triumph Herald, which meant that Griffiths and Mabbs were not scoring enough bonus points. At Eindhoven the matter was discussed and it was agreed that Lewis would not finish, so that Griffiths would take enough points to make the victory safe. Lewis retired 50 metres before the finish in Noordwijk. On this point, then, the new system failed, which drew a good deal of criticism at the finish. Mabbs wanted his wife to come over for the prize-giving, but at first this proved impossible because her passport was in the safe and Mabbs had the key with him. Through the intervention of the Royal Dutch Automobile Club she was able to travel to the Netherlands without a passport, but sadly she arrived half an hour too late to see her husband receive his prizes. Pat Moss and Ann Wisdom won the Coupe des Dames in an Austin Healey 3000. Jan Smulders and Luc van den Bergh won the national rally in a DAF 600. In the weeks before the rally they had turned the saving of weight into a fine art. All the trim had been taken out of the DAF. They used matches instead of lighters. A small fog lamp was the only concession the team made. Even clothing, food and drink were left at home. Hence the joke afterwards that Smulders and Van den Bergh shared one pair of pyjamas (the one the jacket, the other the trousers).