Tulpenrallye 2003

The story of 2003: The organisers decided to celebrate the 50th edition of the Tulpenrallye in style this year. To make the route more interesting still, the start was not in Noordwijk but in Aix-les-Bains, not far from Annecy, where the idea for the Tulpenrallye had been born 55 years earlier at Lac d’Annecy. Starting abroad presented the organisers with a number of considerable new challenges, but all of them were overcome during the preparations. The competitors gathered as early as Sunday 10 May in Aix-les-Bains in France for the documentation check and a reception. Various activities were laid on to draw attention to the Tulpenrallye’s special anniversary. Maus Gatsonides’s car “Platje” had been brought to Aix-les-Bains on a trailer, a barrel organ played outside the hotel all day long, and a jeweller from Noordwijk offered a handsome anniversary watch for sale. The first day was a long loop through the Alps, with lunch at Alpe d’Huez, after which the competitors returned to Aix-les-Bains in the evening. On the evening before the leg the organisers discovered that a large part of the route could not be driven because there was still too much snow lying, and the route had to be altered considerably. On the Tuesday the crews drove through the Jura to Malbuisson, and on the Wednesday all the important cols of the Vosges were taken in on the way to Riquewihr. On the Thursday the competitors drove to Luxembourg and on the Friday to Priorij Corsendonck near Turnhout. The weather that day was fine, and in the priory garden it became rather late for almost all the competitors. They agreed that a start abroad made the Tulpenrallye a good deal more interesting. On the Saturday a secret leg awaited, after which the competitors reached the finish in Noordwijk. With 222 crews at the start, this was the fifth largest Tulpenrallye. Count Hugo van Zuylen van Nijevelt, the first Dutch winner of the Tulpenrallye, appeared at the start with a Jowett Javelin, identical to the car in which he had won the Tulpenrallye in 1952. The count had been a member of the Tulpenrallye’s honorary committee for many years and continued to follow the event closely. His Duinrell had been included in the route for several years and he was always there at the finish. For this special anniversary edition he allowed himself to be persuaded to take part once again. He found it quite demanding and remarked that the rally had clearly changed, not least because of the heavy ordinary traffic on the public roads compared with the 1950s. The battle in the Sports Class was particularly close. Karel Westerman and Martin Roosenboom, with a Porsche 356B, won this edition of the Tulpenrallye and were able to add their names to the Coupe Rallye des Tulipes. Eddy van den Hoorn and René Smeets finished second. The engine of the Volvo they had entered gave up on the way to the start, so they were allowed to borrow an Alfa Romeo from Jan Ebus, which was brought to Aix-les-Bains during the night before the start. Jan Ebus and Jan Berkhof finished third in this special anniversary edition. Competitors and organisers alike found the adventure of a start far away abroad a very positive one. The opening day through the Netherlands, with its heavy traffic and few options for the navigators, was now a thing of the past. The rally started straight away in the rally country itself, and the competitors also regarded the rather longer journey to the start venue as a positive thing and as part of the rally experience. From 2003 the start abroad was part of the Tulpenrallye concept, and that would never change again.