Jan de Rooy
Jan de Rooy (born February 19, 1943 in Eindhoven ), sometimes also written Jan de Rooij (see ij ), is a Dutch entrepreneur and racing driver . De Rooy was best known for his countless successes in motorsport rallycross and later for his numerous participations as a daring truck driver in the desert rally Dakar Rally . His nickname in the rallycross scene was "Ome Jan" (Eng. "Uncle Jan"), his nickname at the "Dakar" is "L'ours" (Eng. "The Bear"). De Rooy now lives in Belgium , was married and has two daughters and a son, Gerard de Rooy , who also competes in marathon rallies with his wife Annie, who died on October 22, 2010 . Another rally raid driver, Hans Stacey , is a nephew of Jan de Rooy.
Rallycross (1969–1982)
After Jan de Rooy had already successfully participated in motocross races at the age of 16 , he began to be interested in car racing in the late 1960s and in 1969 discovered rallycross racing, which was "imported" from Great Britain to the Netherlands in the same year . He contested his first race in this discipline on October 4, 1969 in Elst in a Mini Cooper . He impressed the board members of Zuid Nederlandse Autosport Vereniging (ZAV) with his driving skills and daredevil so much that they persuaded him to take part in future races under their banner. In his first Autosport -Jahren he went exclusively with the happy mocked as "pensioners and housewives-carts" brand cars DAF at the start. Through numerous successes, he made a significant contribution to the Dutch company's vehicles gaining a lot of recognition, at least in motorsport .
Between 1970 and 1982 Jan de Rooy became a Dutch rallycross legend - but also, together with his equally daring and merciless brother Harry de Rooy, a nightmare for fellow international racing drivers. In a very short time, people throughout Europe were repeatedly talking about the "terrible De Rooy brothers" ( "The terrible De Rooy brothers" ). This was also due to the fact that their F3 - Sportvariomatic all-wheel drive DAF 555 Coupés (the third 5 stood for Group 5 according to the FIA's racing car regulations ) with over 200 hp Ford BDA engines were so superior in the early 1970s that the de Rooys could almost turn circles around their opponents. Although they were almost always not allowed to start until 5 or 10 seconds after their two-wheel drive competitors, or this so-called "4x4 time penalty" ( 4WD penalty ) was added to their time, they won almost every race contested, with Jan mostly doing something more successful than the older Harry was. For 1973 and 1974, the de Rooys had to convert their DAF racing cars from four-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive because new regulations banned all 4x4 cars from rallycross. After his years with DAF, Jan de Rooy drove a Toyota Corolla in 1978 without notable success , a Ford Escort RS1800 with success in 1979 and 1980 and an Audi quattro in rallycross in 1982, before retiring entirely from this motor sport at the end of 1982.
Jan de Rooy's rallycross successes
- 1970: Nat. and Int. Dutch rallycross champion with a DAF 55
- 1971: Nat. and Int. Dutch rallycross champion with DAF 555 Coupé 4x4 ( Gordini and Ford TwinCam engines)
- 1972: Int. Dutch rallycross champion with DAF 555 Coupé 4x4 (Ford BDA engine)
- 1973: Int. Dutch rallycross champion with DAF 55 Coupé (Ford BDA engine)
- 1973: 4th of the FIA European Rallycross Championship (overall result) with a DAF 55 Coupé (Ford BDA engine)
- 1974: 5th of the FIA European Rallycross Championship (overall result) with a DAF 55 Coupé and DAF 66M (each with a Ford BDA engine)
- 1979: Int. Dutch rallycross champion with Ford Escort RS1800
- 1979: 2nd of the FIA European Rallycross Championship (touring car category) with a Ford Escort RS1800
- 1980: Nat. Dutch Rallycross Cup winner (for drivers with international license) with Ford Escort RS1800
- 1982: 3rd of the FIA European Rallycross Championship (Division 2) with Audi quattro
Paris-Dakar (1982–1988)
From the end of 1982 Jan de Rooy took part in the Paris-Dakar desert race. Already on his debut he was able to win his class. In 1984 the Dutchman started with a truck with a double driver's cab, with one engine per cab. One of them drove the front wheels and the other the rear wheels. De Rooy dropped out prematurely, but was able to impressively demonstrate that he and DAF intended to reap winning laurels in the future.
In 1986 de Rooy came to Africa with the first so-called TurboTwin . Not only were two engines available to him, the performance of the turbocharger was also increased considerably. It looked as if the DAF driver could win the “Dakar”, but the race management disqualified him shortly before the finish. The following year, de Rooy could not be stopped and in the end he was able to pin the victory in the truck category on the flags.
After DAF won trucks in 1987, the Dutch wanted to go even higher and were preparing to perhaps take overall victory in the Paris-Dakar rally. For 1988 two brand new TurboTwins were built, the X1 and the X2. Both axles had their own engine with a good 600 hp, which meant that de Rooy and his teammate Theo van de Rijt had 1200 hp each and the trucks could reach a top speed of well over 200 km / h. Jan de Rooy was able to overtake even the fastest racing cars several times. The television pictures of his spectacular duel with the Finnish Peugeot works driver Ari Vatanen in a Peugeot 405 at around 200 km / h in the desert sand of the Ténéré went around the world. While de Rooy was temporarily able to maintain third place in the overall classification, the crew of the second TurboTwin had a fatal accident at high speed that killed Van de Rijt co-pilot Kees van Loevezijn. Immediately after his death, the DAF factory withdrew first from competition and then from rally raid sport, while de Rooy ended his career.
Dakar Rally and Africa Eco Race (from 2002)
After a 13-year abstinence from racing and constant requests from his son Gerard de Rooy to finally try it again, Jan de Rooy decided in 2001 to "play in the sandpit", as he himself likes to call it, his old hobby. to indulge again. Father and son have been taking part in the "Dakar" together since 2002, but now as drivers of various trucks. Both of them were not allowed to start in the 2006 Dakar Rally because there were problems with the FIA homologation of their DAF trucks. In order to avoid a similar fiasco, they entered the race in 2007 with trucks from the Dutch brand GINAF , but both dropped out early due to technical problems. For the 2008 edition of the “Dakar”, father and son de Rooy again built GINAF trucks, but this time they are equipped with Iveco Schouten engines instead of DAF engines. The company GINAF in Veenendaal builds itself with various DAF components and the like. a. all-wheel drive trucks and other special vehicles. From 2009 Jan de Rooy switched from the Dakar Rally to the Africa Eco Race and won the truck classification there in 2009.
Jan de Rooy's Dakar trucks
- 1982: DAF NTT2800
- 1983: DAF FA3300 4 × 4 "De Koffer"
- 1984: DAF F3300 4 × 4 (with double driver's cab)
- 1985: DAF F3300 4 × 4 "The Bull"
- 1986: DAF FAV 3600 4 × 4 TurboTwin
- 1987: DAF FAV 3600 4 × 4 TurboTwin II
- 1988: DAF 95 4 × 4 TurboTwin X1
- 1989–2001: No participation in the Dakar.
- 2002: DAF FAV CF85 4 × 4
- 2003: DAF FAV CF85 4 × 4
- 2004: DAF FAV CF75 4 × 4
- 2005: DAF FAV CF75 4x4
- 2006: DAF FAV CF75 4x4
- 2007: GINAF X 2222
- 2008: GINAF X 2223
The transporter Jan de Rooy
In normal life, Jan de Rooy has been the owner and manager of a Europe-wide shipping company since the mid-1960s , the predecessor of which was founded in 1923 by his father Graat de Rooy and is now one of the largest transport companies in the Netherlands under the company name "GM De Rooy & Zonen" Son en Breugel is established. According to his own statements, his company has over 450 special vehicles in daily use, many of them as new vehicle transporters for automobile manufacturers and car importers. a. Transport over 400,000 vehicles across Europe. According to other sources, de Rooy's operation has 600–650 vehicles in stock and over 1,100 employees, and in 2001 had annual sales of 80 million euros. Son Gerard is currently gradually taking over his father's tasks and managing the company. Jan's brother Harry de Rooy (sometimes also spelled Harry de Rooij , Harrie de Rooy or Harrie de Rooij ) is also a transport company (the brothers parted ways in the mid-1990s) and his also very large forwarding company operates under the name “De Rooy Logistics ”in Geldrop .
literature
In May 2010 the 256-page book "Jan de Rooy - Hart van zand" [Heart of Sand] ( ISBN 978-90-77740-58-3 ) by the Dutch Natascha Kayser was published by Boekenmakers .
Web links
- Website of the Jan de Rooy transport company
- Website of the Dakar Rally Team De Rooy (Dutch, English)
- TV recordings of the duel between Jan de Rooy and Ari Vatanen as well as the crashed twin turbo truck (1988)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rooy, Jan de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rooij, Jan de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch entrepreneur and racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 19, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Eindhoven , Netherlands |