Former Dakar winner Jan de Rooy (80) has died

Jan de Rooy, the driver who made the Dakar Rally in the Netherlands famous, died on Tuesday at the age of 80.

“After a very short illness, our father, husband and grandfather passed away peacefully and were reunited with the love of his life, Annie,” the family announced on Facebook. “He has been committed to his transport company De Rooy for 65 years, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year.”

Jan de Rooy has died

The striking entrepreneur achieved nationwide fame not through his company, but through his achievements as a truck driver. He initially raced cars and later trucks. At the urging of the manufacturer DAF, De Rooy registered for the Paris-Dakar desert race for the first time in 1982.

Fearless

He made a name for himself as a fearless and agile driver who dared to drive his special cars through the sand at high speeds. The tough Brabander with a strong build was nicknamed De Beer.
In 1987 he became the first Dutchman to win a classification in the famous Dakar Rally. He finished at the front of the trucks and had a lead of no less than fourteen hours over number 2 on the final day. He was listed eleventh among the normally much faster rally cars, and that was very special. The pictures in which the Dutchman’s DAF truck overtakes the regular car of top driver Ari Vatanen are famous.
After a serious accident in 1988, Jan de Rooy retired. He wouldn’t appear at Paris-Dakar for years. His son Gerard managed to persuade him to take part again from 2002, but in 2009 De Rooy senior finally stopped taking part in the famous rally. After his father, Gerard de Rooy won the Le Dakar in 2012 and 2016.