Lovers of off-road racing and the world of motorsport are in mourning. The legendary Dutch driver, Jan de Rooy, who conquered the Paris-Dakar in 1982 and 1987 aboard an imposing DAF TurboTwin II truck, has died at the age of 80.
“After a very brief illness, our father, husband and grandfather passed away peacefully and was reunited with our great love, Annie. She lived to be 80 years old. “He had been committed to the De Rooy transport company for 65 years, which celebrated its centenary last year,” reads the family statement.
Jan was born in Eindhoven in 1943, in the middle of World War II and with the country occupied by the Nazis.
His father, Graad, was the owner of a fleet of trucks, which was confiscated by the Germans, so when the war ended, he had to start from scratch. He did it with horse-drawn carts. Jan de Rooy took over the company De Rooy Transport, founded by his father in 1923. He ran it for several decades and the company grew rapidly.
However, what he liked most was speed: he started racing motocross, rally-raids and cars with a Mini in the seventies. But DAF, A manufacturer from his country proposed to him to fulfill his dream: to run the Paris-Dakar Rally. And so they did in 1987.
The success led the Dutch company to focus even more on the test. AND Rooy He had another challenge: beat the cars. They mounted two engines that gave 1,200 HP, the Turbotwin, and allowed themselves to ‘fly’ at more than 200 km/h across Africa. They began to be called the ‘elephants of the desert’.
In 1986 he was disqualified, but the following year, Rooy achieved his second victory. He was 14 hours ahead of second and in the combined car and truck classification, he finished eleventh.
This prompted DAF to go further and in 1988 they brought two even more evolved trucks. Jan went third in the global classification.
The Dutchman was well known for his two victories, but perhaps even more so for the legendary drag race that he starred in that year with Ari Vatanen.
Truck versus car. DAF against Peugeot. De Rooy against Vatanen. It was one of those precious moments that the Dakar left us in its first era, the African one. And that DAF had 1,200 horsepower and could reach 220 kilometers/hour.
A moment that, by the way, can hardly be repeated, since trucks currently have the maximum speed limited to 140 kilometers/hour and cars, to 170 kilometers/hour.
However, that edition of the Dakar was marred by tragedy: the truck DAF, with Van de Rijt behind the wheel, it overturned and co-pilot Kees van Loevezijn was ejected, seat and all. He died instantly from his injuries. DAF withdrew from the competition as did de Rooy, who was devastated by the tragedy and focused on his company, which had more than 500 trucks.
But your son Gerard He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, who could not refuse. For this reason, with his own team and an Iveco truck, the offspring twice won the Dakar in South America, in 2012 and 2016.
Although he retired in 2009, Jan de Rooy could not resist the call of the Dakar in 2002, influenced by the insistence of his son Gerard. His return was a memorable one, competing at the front of the world’s most challenging race. Subsequently, he achieved victory in the Africa Eco Race in 2008 before deciding to retire permanently at the end of 2009.
Jan, famous for his cigars and nicknamed ‘The Bear’ for his large size, years later handed over the controls of his company to his children and his team, De Rooy, ended up leaving the Dakar.
Source: Ambito
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