Tulpenrallye 1993

The story of 1993: The organisers developed the historic concept launched in 1992 further, and this time they had the backing of European status. That year the Tulpenrallye counted towards the F.I.A. Historic Rally Trophy. For the first time since 1978 the event again counted towards an official European championship. Only the competition class was in contention for 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 had to have been built before 1966. This contest was once again run over closed special tests. The same tests were used by the regularity class (24 competitors) as a regularity section, on which they had to hold the same average speed as far as possible. This was checked at various points along the way by means of secret time controls. Peter van Merksteijn and Hans van Beek lined up at the start to defend their title from the previous year, 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 that year, also fielded three Porsches. Paul Maaskant again started in the Ford Shelby Mustang of Cars of Yester Year, navigated this time 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 that year were also after the European title. Rosemary Smith had won the Coupe des Dames in the 1965 Tulpenrallye. This time she started together with Pauline Gullick in a 1964 Sunbeam Tiger. The route that year was 550 kilometres long and took in 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 Tulpenrallyes in 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 sent 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 certainly safer, but they did not conform to the guidelines and were also at odds with history, since in the years when these cars originally ran such cages did not yet exist. A number of other competitors, among them Van den Hoorn, 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 come that year to take the FIA Trophy. On one of the first tests a German BMW caught fire and burned out completely. Peter van Merksteijn and Hans van Beek again showed the potential of their Porsche 911, prepared by Kobus Tuning. Although the car had not turned a wheel since its victory in the previous Tulpenrallye, it was once more exceptionally quick. At the finish in 1992 they had said 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, though, made a real contest 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 those back. On the next test, however, he lost the rally. In thick fog on the famous Kallenbroek test he saw a sharp left-hand bend 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 give up the fight 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 picked up 90 penalty seconds for reporting late at the start. He went on to drive a consistent event and, without the penalty, would have finished fourth. Hendrik Blok, who had earlier gained experience of rallying in the USA, finished second, and the debutants Frans Verbaas and Bettine Vlasman surprised many by finishing third in 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 prize-giving was again held on the Saturday evening in 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 would remain worth putting in so much work for such a small group.