Tulpenrallye 1988

The story of 1988: The one-day format, with the whole rally within a radius of 20 km of Barneveld and the Veluwehal as the rally centre, was applied once again by the organising AMAC. Hans Brinkman (route), who had started as a navigator on several occasions in the past, and Frank Pauli (public relations) were new to the organising team this year. The favourites for this rally were John Bosch with his new BMW M3, navigated this time by the Briton Kevin Gormley, and the professional Mark Lovell, driving for Ford Nederland (navigated by the very experienced Roger Freeman), with his Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. Other leading drivers at the start were Jan van der Marel, Paul Maaskant, Henk Vossen and Erwin Doctor. The Swede Bror Danielsson, navigated this time by André Schoonenwolf, was also back in the Tulpenrallye after an absence of seven years, with an Audi Quattro. Jörgen Hansen was there once more as well, whilst Gunnar Pettersson also returned to Barneveld, bringing a VW Golf GTI to the start. The route was broadly similar to that of previous years and consisted of eighteen special tests. It should be noted, though, that although a number of the tests were run over the same ground (Vlasakkers, Stroe, Stompert, Harskamp etc.), the way in which the test had been laid out on that ground was usually different. Permission to admit spectators to the Vlasakkers had still not been obtained, and the tests remained secret from the competitors until the rally itself. Mark Lovell, naturally, went out to reconnoitre. When he arrived at the Harskamp military training area the barrier was open, so he simply drove on, only to be taken by surprise a little later by a hand grenade going off close to his car. He told the furious soldiers that he was looking for a campsite. Because the rally had now been run in the same area and along a comparable route for several years, many crews went out reconnoitring, and at the weekends before the rally the Veluwe around Barneveld was accordingly rather busy. The weather had a great influence on the course of the rally this year. A fair amount of snow fell in the morning, whilst for the rest of the day it rained hard at very regular intervals. Most of the tests were therefore extremely slippery, and a number of competitors had considerable trouble choosing the most suitable tyres. Lovell attacked from the outset and won the first test at Harskamp. The battle between Bosch and Lovell for this year's championship put both of them under great pressure. In the first rally of the year, the Amsterdam BP, Bosch had made a mistake and hit a lamp post, which allowed Lovell to take the win. This time it was Lovell who made the mistake. On special test 5, around the Barneveld refuse tip (Kootwijkerbroek), he went off the road heavily and the car ended up wedged between two trees. Lovell retired and the test was neutralised, because the road was blocked for the competitors following him. Van der Marel had bad luck in the Tulpenrallye once again when his battery gave out on the Vlasakkers. A notional time dropped him back to 17th place. John Bosch won the AMAC Tulpenrallye for the third time in four years. Paul Maaskant was second and took the lead in the Dutch championship. The prize-giving was again held on the Sunday morning in Hoevelaken, where every competitor received a box of Barneveld eggs. Henk Bont and Bettina de Wild — daughter of Wil de Wild, who started in many of the old Tulpenrallyes — won the national class (11th overall).