THE STORY OF 2001
Kees Stoel stepped down as race director after the 2000 edition but remained the chairman of the organizing committee. Abe van den Brink took over as race director from him. Additionally, André Jetten continued to assist Hans Brinkman with designing the rally routes. The comprehensive technical inspection of the participating cars was held on the boulevard in Noordwijk, not only on Sunday but also early Monday morning before the rally start. At 2650 km, this was the longest Tulpenrallye organized by AMAC to date.
The caravan set off early on Monday morning, May 14, and by that evening, it had reached Verdun in northern France. On Tuesday, the rally proceeded to Malbuisson, where it set up camp for two days in the classic hotels on the edge of the lake of the same name. Wednesday featured an interesting loop through the Vosges and the Jura, with lunch served 100 km south of Geneva (in Bellegarde; the southernmost point of the route), followed by a journey through the Vosges on Thursday to St. Avold. Friday’s route led via Luxembourg to the Philips Automotive Lamps factory (one of this year’s sponsors) in Aachen, Germany. That evening, the organizers discovered that a large number of route books for the next day had been incorrectly delivered by the printer. The books were reprinted overnight. On Saturday’s route, participants faced a secret test, this time set on the test track of DAF Trucks in Brabant.
Key favorites this year included Dolk-Rorife, Ebus-Berkhof, Wilssens-De Munck, Zapfe-Bögershausen, Westerman-Roosenboom, van Baaren-Dentzler, Guliker-‘t Hart, and father and son Huisman.
After the first day, German Frans Zapfe led with zero penalty points. Over the following days, an engaging battle unfolded, with Bert Dolk – Robert Rorife taking the lead on Tuesday. They engaged in an exciting struggle over the next four days, significantly increasing their lead on Friday afternoon in the Ardennes over the other teams. The terrain knowledge of experienced Rorife in Belgium undoubtedly played a crucial role. During the award ceremony, Dolk drove the winning Volvo into the Pické room of “Huis ter Duin” and thanked his navigator Robert Rorife on the podium. For both participants, this was the second time they claimed victory in the Tulpenrallye. Dolk won the special 1973 edition to Poland with Bob de Jong, and Belgian Rorife won one of the early historic editions in 1996. All participants agreed that this was the most beautiful Tulpenrallye in recent years.
