Tulpenrallye 1969

The story of 1969: Piet Nortier had fallen ill and was no longer actively involved in organising the rally. For the other organisers it was clear after 1968 that the rally would have to be put on a different footing if its financial base was to stay healthy. The advertising agency Markos was therefore brought in to work out a new concept. For the first time the start and finish of the rally would take place in Rotterdam, and the test at Zandvoort returned. The Rotterdam business community backed the rally wholeheartedly, and a range of activities was organised around the event. This year the rally did not count towards the European Championship for manufacturers (although it did for drivers, which now changed from year to year), so the factories showed only limited interest in taking part. On top of that, it took a long time for the funding to be settled, which led to a somewhat late publication of the rally, and that did nothing to help the number of competitors entering either. Entries among amateurs were encouraging. That undoubtedly had much to do with the lower entry fee, the fact that advertising was allowed on the cars, and the prize money on offer (20,000 guilders in total, in the amateur class as well). The leading competitors were Zasada (Porsche), Gerard van Lennep and Rob Slotemaker (both with BMW), Kees van Grieken-Bob de Jong (Alfa Romeo 1750), the Belgian Gilbert Staepelaere with a Ford Escort and the DAFs of Haxhe, Toussaint and Koks. The Dutch National Racing Team ran three works Datsuns, which were also supported by Datsun Nederland. This year three special stages were included in the route, the first of them the Zolder circuit. Alongside these there were, of course, a number of special tests that the competitors had to complete within a predetermined maximum time. The route then ran through various villages in Belgium, no longer along the motorway, to Larochette and Sarrebourg, where the mountain roads began. From there it went via Dabo, St. Odile and La Rothlach and then over the Cols de la Charbonnière, the Fouchy and the Ballon d’Alsace. The weather now played an important part, and the persistent rain and thick fog made the rally exceptionally hard. In the 0 to 850 cc class, every crew retired in the Vosges. The competitors then drove the Route Joffre, after which they headed towards Annecy via Cernay for the rest of the route. The crews then travelled to Surier for the Night of Annecy. After Rumilly, 423 km from Annecy, the route took in the demanding Mont Clergeon (an 18 km stage) and the Sapenay. It then continued over the Cols du Brabant, the Fouchy and the Breitenbach. From Sarrebourg the route turned back to the Netherlands for the special stages on the Vlasakkers. The crews returned to Rotterdam on the Thursday, after which the cars were lined up in the Ahoy Hall in Rotterdam on the Friday. Here the competitors could prepare, without any help from service teams, for the final test on the Zandvoort circuit. The Zandvoort test consisted of five laps of the circuit, preceded by two laps behind the pace car at an average of 80 km/h. One of the great favourites, the former Polish European champion Zasada, went out of the running with his Porsche before Gérardmer. The Luijbrechts brothers, with a DAF, had extraordinarily bad luck. First they replaced their cracked windscreen with a plastic one. Then the fuel tank sprang a leak. They tried to seal it with chewing gum (60 packets in all), but ended up in a ditch, where the front wheel was damaged. At Annecy, with 58 competitors still in the event, Staepelaere-Aerts led, followed by Slotemaker-Van der Geest, with 169 penalty points. Van Grieken and De Jong lost their lead in the Grand Turism class when they went off the road on the way back through Belgium. The test at Zandvoort was won almost as a matter of course by Rob Slotemaker, followed shortly afterwards by the diminutive Belgian lady ‘Christine’. Gilbert Staepelaere duly became the deserved winner of this 21st edition in its new style. Rob Slotemaker proved once again that he was among the leading crews in the Netherlands, finishing second overall together with Ferry van der Geest and as the best-placed Dutchman. DAF enjoyed particular success with Haxhe and Laurent (despite a collision on the Cote de Bienne in which every window in the DAF was smashed), fourth and fifth respectively, with Koks just behind them in seventh. The Belgian ladies Christine Beckers and Gaby Arendt won the Coupe des Dames.