Circuit Zandvoort exists 75 years. Until the start of the Formula 1 Grand Prix next weekend, NH will pay attention to the rich history of the dune circuit in a series. Today part 1 about Hans Hugenholtz. As the first director (from 1949 to 1974), his name is associated with Circuit Zandvoort. But if it had been up to Hugenholtz, the national circuit would not have come to Zandvoort, but to Zeist.
It would have been close if the hundreds of thousands of fans who will come to Zandvoort next week would have had to go to Zeist to see Max Verstappen drive. Shortly after the Second World War, there were plans in the Zeister woods for a track that should have made the Zandvoort circuit superfluous.
Spicy
Spicy enough, the track in the middle of the country was the brainchild of the man who would become Circuit Zandvoort’s first director, Hans Hugenholtz (1914-1995). If it had been up to him, the first Dutch Grand Prix would not have been held in the dunes but in the Zeisterbossen, according to research by, among others, sporthistorie.nl. Assen and Zandvoort, where a circuit was being worked on at the same time, would become ‘only’ the scene of motorcycle races.
Text continues under historical film recordings about the construction of Circuit Zandvoort
Construction track – NH News
His son Hans Hugenholtz junior (73) knows the history of the failed attempt all too well. The middle class of Zeist wanted the first GP to be held there, but Staatsbosbeheer and the municipality of Zeist eventually prevented it in 1947. ”The political situation was unstable, so it didn’t become Zeist but Zandvoort. It was logical that my father later became director there, given his expertise,” he says in the office of the Hugenholtz Property Group, the real estate company he owns.
Love for motorsport
The love for motorsport has been passed on from father to son, as the photos on the wall of his office testify. Hugenholtz: ”When I turned eighteen and took driving lessons, I already had experience as a driver in three hundred different cars.”
In addition to being a deserving driver, the ‘young’ Hugenholtz was chairman of the board of Spyker Cars, built the pit lane in Zandvoort, made an offer for the circuit when it was for sale in 2017 (and came into the hands of Prince Bernard jr. and his business partner Menno de Jong ) and is one of the founders of the Ferrari Club Nederland. He still drives races all over the world with historic cars. He is about to go to the United States for a series of Grands Prix. “Purely for fun.”
Municipal official
During the years that father was director of the circuit, the Hugenholtz family lived in Bentveld, just a few kilometers from his office. That was not on the circuit, but was housed at the Zandvoort town hall on the Raadhuisplein. That was the natural result of the two functions he combined in one job. Being director of the circuit at that time also meant managing the local tourist office as a municipal official.
Prince Bernard
Although he associated with famous racing drivers in his role as director of the circuit and could count both Prince Bernhard and Prince Bira of Siam (in 1948 the winner of the first official race on the circuit) among his circle of acquaintances, he lived anything but a glamorous life .
Hugenholtz: ”My father was a hard worker and certainly didn’t get rich from his job. I remember that in the early years he earned 6,000 guilders a year. We had it good at home, but not overly so. We just lived in a rented house. What was nice for him was that my mother (maiden Marianne Sophie van Rheineck Leyssius) came from a wealthy family. That helped him. She was also a very active person. She has been a councilor for the VVD in Zandvoort for years.”
Earn extra
His father had studied law, but was more interested in motorsport and especially circuit design. He has signed the Hockenheimring in Germany, the Japanese Suzuka, Zolder in Belgium and the Ontario Motor Speedway in California, among others. He was also a designer of cars and wrote about motorsport in several magazines. He did car tests for the Financieel Dagblad and a few magazines. “It all happened in the evenings,” says his son. “I can still see him sitting behind the old-fashioned typewriter. He did it because he liked it, but it was also a way to earn some extra money.”
Dream job
His father did not contribute to the layout of the Circuit Zandvoort, because he had set his sights on the circuit in Zeist. ‘Did he regret that? We never talked about it, but I don’t think he thought it was a problem. He was happy for a long time to be the director there. For someone who loved motorsport so much, it was a dream job.”
Car accident
It is bitter that something for which he cherished so much love also became fatal. In January 1995, Hugenholtz was involved in a serious car accident on the boulevard of Zandvoort, right next to the circuit. His wife, who was behind the wheel, died on the spot. Hans Hugenholtz was badly injured, but survived. However, a few months later he died of his injuries.
Hugenholtz junior: “My father was a special person. Very charismatic. What I admired most about him was his versatility. When I organize an event in motorsport, I sometimes think: how would he have handled this?”
Wine from Hans Hugenholtz ‘tres explosif’
At his farewell in 1974, a bend was named after him as a tribute to Hans Hugenholtz. It is part of the circuit that has been transformed into a banked corner in 2021 with the Arie Luyendijkbocht.
In the 1970s, Hugenholz senior regularly sent bottles of wine to relations abroad, who assumed that the grapes from which the wine was made grew in the dunes behind the Hugenholtzbocht, which of course was not the case. But Hugenholtz liked to perpetuate the myth. ‘Vin rouge tres ordinaire et tres explosif’, consisting of ’20 percent alcohol, fifteen percent methanol and 7 percent huile de ricin’, featured on the label.
“My father was very fond of practical jokes,” says his son. He recalls a Zandvoort April 1 prank involving Hugenholtz that received international attention in 1962. That day, artist Edo van Tetterode reported that a statue from Easter Island had washed up on the beach. The news made the front pages of the newspapers. In a live broadcast on television, Tetterode later revealed that he himself was the creator and had put the image there himself. He calls the work of art ‘de Loeres.’
As a result of this joke, Van Tetterode founded the national April 1 society. For years, this club awarded a bronze Loeres for the best April 1 joke.
Monday: The first race cars raced through the streets of Zandvoort instead of the circuit.