Researching the Dutch Autosport History between 1880 and 1949 is the biggest project I’ve worked on. A project that keeps on going and going. Recently I purchased the books “A Record of Grand Prix and Voiturette Racing” which is a complete goldmine! The information within the books is rich of statistics and information about the races from the early days on. Besides these books and other books, my physical and digital archive and contacts this is one of the most interesting research projects.
The interest for the Dutch Autosport history is one I always had. We learned that Autosport in the Netherlands in general only started to get form in 1939 when the first “Grand Prix” was held on the streets of Zandvoort. During the war the idea’s developed to start working on a “parade” street with in the background to build the current circuit in the Dunes of Zandvoort.
However, we already had drivers before 1940, we had races before 1940. It is the forgotten history that should be known for anyone. Because, I believe it is a part of it that we Dutchies should be proud of. The Belgian, French, Italian and American Autosport history is well known and written a lot about. Sadly, this does not count for ours.
The issue however is, that it’s an era where not much has been written about by the papers in those days. As Autosport was even forbidden. In the 1920s there were several sprint races on boulevards alongside the coast. There were also drivers active abroad. For example, in the 1930s we ever had Grand Prix winners like J. Walter Rens who won with Bugatti. The earliest driver I found out about now is Leon Elskamp who appeared at Circuit de Ardennes in 1902 with a Nagant-Gobron 18HP.
However, it can be very hard to uncover the nationality behind the drivers. In the early days there were a couple of drivers that had a Dutch family name. Though, when looking into the geo information about families you find out that they are fom a different country. Such as de Meester who is a French driver. As well van Hoof who seemed to be a German.
To define the nationality I base it basically on the known information about the driver. If this does not give the needed results I look into the family name. If the majority of the name comes from Belgium I assume it was Belgian.
I love it to dive into the past of the Dutch Autosport and uncover all the information and the forgotten little facts. I hope as well you will, eventually, enjoy the results and articles as well that I will publish. There won’t be one big article as i believe it can’t bring the true history to the surface.
