Tulpenrallye 1992

The story of 1992: The organisers developed the historic concept launched in 1992 further, and this time they could count on the support of European status. The Tulpenrallye counted this year towards the F.I.A. Historic Rally Trophy, and for the first time since 1978 the event once again counted towards an official European championship. Only the competition class contested the Trophy. Competitors — 38 crews had entered — had to hold an International licence, and the cars had to meet various safety requirements, such as a roll cage, and to have been built before 1966. This competition was once again run over closed special tests. The same tests were used by the regularity class (24 competitors) as regularity sections, on which as constant an average speed as possible had to be maintained. Along the way this was checked at various points by means of secret time controls. Peter van Merksteijn and Hans van Beek lined up to defend last year’s title, and had to take on, among others, the Porsches of father and son Schildkamp, Blok–Smeets and Ellermann–Moormann. Mike Cornwell and Keith Ferry started in a Porsche 356. The Porsche Classic Team from Sweden, chasing the FIA Trophy this year, also fielded three Porsches. Paul Maaskant started once again in the Ford Shelby Mustang of Cars of Yester Year, this time navigated by Sylvia Huisman. Other Dutch entries were Eddy van den Hoorn (together with René Smeets), winner of the national class in the 1991 Tulpenrallye, and the Van Thiel brothers, who were also chasing the European title this year. Rosemary Smith had won the Coupe des Dames in the Tulpenrallye in 1965. This year she started alongside Pauline Gullick in a Sunbeam Tiger from 1964. The route this year was 550 kilometres long and included thirteen special tests (with a length of 100 km). Scrutineering already took place on the Thursday, in Barneveld. On the Friday there were tests laid out at Nijkerk, Flevohof (twice), Doornspijk (familiar from the Tulpenrallyes of the 1970s) and Putten. The Saturday route consisted of tests at Barneveld, Wijk bij Duurstede, Druten, Beneden-Leeuwen and Beuningen. Scrutineering on the Thursday caused a good deal of commotion when the technical inspectors delegated by the FIA found that the three Swedish Porsches did not comply with Annex K. The roll cages had too many mounting points, and the bars across the doors were not provided for in the regulations either. These cages were admittedly safer, but they did not conform to the guidelines and were also at odds with history, since in the years when these cars originally competed such cages did not yet exist. A number of other competitors, Van den Hoorn among them, cut the bars out, but Ake Andersson, Jerry Larsson and Hans Sellberg put their own safety first and decided not to start, even though in principle they had intended to take the FIA Trophy this year. On one of the first tests a German BMW caught fire and burnt out completely. Peter van Merksteijn and Hans van Beek once again demonstrated the potential of their Porsche 911, prepared by Kobus Tuning. Although the car had not turned a metre since its victory in the previous Tulpenrallye, it was exceptionally quick all the same. At the finish in 1992 they had let it be known that they would return this year on a mission to win every test. They did not manage it; they were fastest on 8 of the 13 special tests. Maaskant, however, made a thrilling fight of it. After the first day he was only 20 sec. behind. On the first test of the second day he immediately took 4 of them back. On the next test, though, he lost the rally. In thick fog on the famous Kallenbroek test he saw a sharp left-hand corner too late and ran into an embankment at full speed. The engine stalled, costing him a minute and with it the chance of victory. Later they even had to retire when the Ford’s engine began to give too much trouble. Eddy van den Hoorn lost the rally when he overslept on the second day and was given 90 penalty seconds for reporting late at the start. He otherwise drove a consistent rally and would have finished fourth without the penalty. Hendrik Blok, who had previously gained experience of rallies in the United States, finished second, and the debutants Frans Verbaas and Bettine Vlasman surprised many by finishing third with the little Austin Cooper (they even won a test). Jan van der Heijden and John Bekker won the regularity class with a Peugeot 404KF. The prizegiving was once again held on the Saturday evening at the Veluwehal in Barneveld. The organisers looked back on a successful rally, but were disappointed by the limited number of competitors and wondered whether it remained worth doing so much work for such a small group.