Everything, or at least a lot of it, revolves around cars in the life of Ronald van Loon from Son. He sells them, saves them and adores them. It is therefore not surprising that he is now participating in the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. A portrait of the racing driver who wants to put something right: “Due to bad luck – one stupid bolt – we didn’t get a medal.”
“Do you know what it is,” says Ronald van Loon (40) as he looks around and takes a look at the more than four hundred cars in and around his showroom. “If a car is really beautiful, I feel warm inside. And I think vintage cars as they originally came from the factory are the most beautiful.”
“I’ve sworn a few times that I’m going to quit, but it’s so beautiful.”
The man who is currently participating in the Dakar Rally for the second time is oozing with passion for cars. Like a child in a candy store, he walks between ten vintage cars that are also in the showroom. He gets into a Porsche 356. “I think this is the most beautiful. It is a coupe, but it has been very nicely restored and also drives really well. The most beautiful thing is the air-cooled engine. That is just beautiful to look at; an icon on the road.”
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The passion for cars is a virus that Van Loon inherited from an early age. “That started when I was five, when I went with my father to pick out a car for him. I have made it my job and have been selling used cars since I was eighteen. It is my life. Everything revolves around cars and motorsport.”
Van Loon is also a fanatical rally driver. That gives him a different feeling. “It’s all about the adrenaline,” says the owner of RvL cars. “My neighbor always says: 3, 2, 1 mind gone. And that’s true. I have sworn a few times that I will quit, because there are many moments of disappointment in this sport. Not being able to find the way, technical problems or fall out. But if all goes well, it’s so beautiful!”
“Because of one stupid bolt, we didn’t get a medal.”
Two years ago, Ronald van Loon participated in the famous Dakar Rally for the first time. With varying degrees of success. He reached the finish in Saudi Arabia, but outside the Dakar classification. “I still regularly think back on that with mixed feelings,” he says. “We didn’t get a medal because we didn’t ride one hundred kilometers enough for one day. Because of one stupid bolt, which meant we didn’t arrive on time.”
That has to be different this year. “We want to get that medal at all costs. But I am also going to really drive a rally and not participate for the sake of participating; I want to get the best out of myself and the car. We cannot participate at the top, because they have huge budgets.” “But we do want to become the best Dutchman.”
Van Loon is currently the best Dutchman in the Dakar Rally and is heading for the medal he so desires with four stages to go.
