Tulpenrallye 2000

Although the special edition of 1999 was successful, the organization decided to return to France in 2000. They chose not only to include the Vosges but also to return to the challenging mountains of the Jura! The rally spanned nearly a whole week and started on Monday, May 8 at ten o’clock in the morning.

On the first day, Bouillon was reached at the border between Belgium and France. The hotel in Bouillon was not adequately prepared for the large group of participants from the Netherlands. By the evening, there was no more beer left in the hotel. The wholesaler was called, and they delivered a number of new barrels that same evening to solve the problem. On Tuesday, Besançon was the finishing point. From Besançon, a long loop through the French Jura was driven on Wednesday, with Confort near Geneva as the southernmost point, and participants returned to the same hotel in the evening. Thursday brought the Vosges with lunch atop the Ballon d’Alsace and the finish in la Petite Pierre. Friday featured a challenging stage through the Belgian Ardennes with the finish near Turnhout at Priorij Corsendonck. On Saturday, there was a surprise: the Tulpenrallye returned (for the first time since 1989) to the Vlasakkers. A secret test was set up here for the sport class. Participants received the navigation instructions for this test only at the entrance to the terrain.

Prominent participants from the Netherlands included Bert Dolk – Jan Berkhof, Adrie Brugmans – Jaap Daamen, Man Bergsteijn – André Jetten, and father and son Leunis and Richard de Kam. The key foreign participants were the friendly Belgians Gilbert Wilssens-Filip de Munck and the Germans Frans Zapfe – Anja Bögershausen.

Bert Dolk and Jan Berkhof took the lead on the first day and maintained it through Thursday, although the teams in the next positions followed closely with only a limited number of penalty points. On Friday, Adrie Brugmans and Jaap Daamen excelled in the Ardennes when they missed only 1 checkpoint, while all other teams incurred a much higher number of penalty points. Of course, the secret test at the Vlasakkers added extra tension, but both Dolk and Brugmans managed to limit the damage to 56 penalty points each. Adrie Brugmans and Jaap Daamen, driving an Alfa Romeo, won the 47th Tulpenrallye.