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A one-time comeback of Boet van Dulmen
The Dutchman Boet van Dulmen, one of the main players in the seventies and eighties will make a one-time comeback on a race bike during the Bikers’ Classics on 19, 20 and 21 June.
Van Dulmen will ride a Suzuki RG500. The Dutchman won the Grand Prix of Finland in 1979 and was for years one of the best privateers in the Continental Circus. He stopped racing in 1986.
Van Dulmen makes his unique one-time comeback out of sympathy for Ferry Brouwer, the man behind the Centennial Classic TT in 1998 and behind the Yamaha Classic Race Team. Van Dulmen decided to stop racing in 1986 and ever since, he hasn’t set foot on a race bike again. “I had put an end to it. I have enjoyed racing very much, but at a certain moment it was over. Otherwise I would have continued racing.” says Van Dulmen. Even at the Centennial Classic TT in 1998 (one of the largest reunions in history – if not thé largest – of Grand Prix riders), ‘Den Boet’ was not present. But, because Ferry Brouwer helped him out in the past, Van Dulmen will be there this time at the Bikers’ Classics 2009. Ferry Brouwer is the man organising the GP Parade of the Bikers’ Classics and also managed to trace one of the Suzuki’s with which Van Dulmen raced in the past. It’s currently located in England, and will be prepared once again for Van Dulmen.
For Van Dulmen, the participation at the GP Parade on 19, 20 and 21 June will also be a renewed discovery of the track of Francorchamps. He has ridden on the old and super fast track but also on the new track of 1979. “The old track was special, very beautiful, and very, very fast (the 500cc would ride here at an average of 220 kilometres an hour), but also extremely dangerous. It would be impossible to ride on it with today’s bikes. The new track is also very beautiful, in between the hills. There’s a bit of everything. Van Dulmen remembers that there were always many Dutch supporters who came to the track in the Ardennes in those days when there was still a Belgian GP in Francorchamps. And how does he think it will be like to ride again on a race bike after all these years of inactivity? Van Dulmen: “You never grow out of something you knew well. Although I will need a few rounds to get back into it.”
