What is it with Brabanders and racing around in a desert? Nrc has the story of how the Dutch have taken over the Dakar rally. ‘Playing billiards is cheaper but Dakar is more fun’.

In Brabant it was a question of one dozy bugger imitating another. This is how the people of Brabant explain the fact that their province has such a large contingent of contestants in the rally. There’s twenty all in all, on motor cycles, in cars and especially in trucks.
This year’s truck event winner Gerard de Rooy had the family honour to defend. His father Jan de Rooy won the same event twenty five years ago.
Dozy
The Dutch victory – De Rooy’s team mate Hans Stacey finished second – was celebrated in style in Peru. The ‘dozy buggers’ from Brabant and their fellow enthusiasts from the rest of the country can count on the support of their equally racing mad wives.
Irma van Loon’s husband Erik has come 17th with his Mitsubishi Racing Lancer. ‘I am very proud’, she says. ‘He has petrol running through his veins’. The wives usually stay at home and follow the nail biting events via the local television station and the computer. They can even track their men by using a gps. ‘Everything is about the rally at our house. I look at five sites at the same time’, Van Loon says.
Dakar feeling
Erik van Loon has a meat processing factory which employs seven hundred people. ‘He works very hard’, his wife says. ‘These three weeks are his way of relaxing.’
The ladies are present at the festivities in Lima thanks to tour operator Henk Verhoeven from Eindhoven. He organises an annual week long trip to ‘Dakar’ for the sum of €4,985. The VIP arrangement has become so popular that another three tour operators have followed suit.
Verhoeven is a wheeler dealer. He mounted a desert tent in Arequipa in southern Peru for those who wanted to experience the ‘Dakar feeling’. ‘Dakar has become a party for the Dutch’, Verhoeven explains. ‘A lot of the Dutch drivers are wealthy entrepreneurs. To them competing in the rally is like buying a packet of chewing gum.’
Rich list
While other drivers compete for the prize money the Dutch tend to figure in the Quote 500 rich list. Erik van Loon is on number 223 with an estimated fortune of €140m and the best Dutch rally driver this year was kitchen manufacturer Bernard ten Brinke who has €65m and comes in at number 442.
Mrs van Loon is philosophical about the cost. ‘Playing billiards is cheaper but this is more fun.’
Faster
Chantal ten Brinke meanwhile is ecstatic about her husband’s performance. ‘It’s his first time and straight off he’s the best of the Dutch bunch’, she thrills. Chantal is not from Brabant and it shows. ‘I spent the night with Bernard in a hotel while all the other wives slept in the tent. The men said that wasn’t how it should be. You can meet with a driver but only to cheer him on to the finish. But Bernard drove even faster after that night so I have nothing to feel guilty about.’