We, Dutch have the awkward need to use our country name in their team name. This was the case in the 1960’s when Gijs van Lennep, Ben Pon and others raced in their orange Racing Team Holland Porsche 906’s. Dutch National Racing Team competed in touring car races in the early 1970’s. In 1978, Racing Team Holland was used again for the Formula 3 talent team with Jan Lammers, Huub Rothengather and Arie Luyendijk. Two of them reached F1 and the third won Indianapolis twice. Years later Jan Lammers launched his own team and named it Racing for Holland. One of his sponsors was entrepreneur Frits van Eerd who started Racing Team Nederland in 2017. In between Toine Hezemans founded Carsport Holland …
To clarify for my foreign visitors: Our country is called Nederland, translated as (the) Netherlands or literally “low lands” (“Pays-Bas” in French) as the highest point is just over 320 meters high and we even have to share that little mountain with Belgium and Germany. 27% of our country is below sea level, over 18% is water and we live here with 18 million people. Our main language is called Nederlands, translated as Dutch, which can be confusing because we call the language in our neighbor country Germany “Duits” … Holland is often used to describe our country, but that is an old name that was our title in the 19th century and now in fact is only the name of two provinces in the western part of our country with some well known cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. Our flag is red-white-blue, but our national color is orange.
Dutch National Racing Team
1973 Spa-Francorchamps 24h, Dutch National Racing Team. Team D.N.R.T. was a Dutch team around the Vermeulen and Frankenhout brothers. They entered two cars for the Spa 24-hours race in 1973, both managed to finish.
- #79 Loek Vermeulen (NL) / Aloys Mattijssen (NL) – Opel Manta 1.9 SR – 14th / 4th in division 1 | SCHUCO 45 034 4500
- #31 Fred Frankenhout (NL) / Jim Vermeulen (NL) / Jelle Hingst (NL) – Opel Commodore GS/E – 6th | SCHUCO 45 027 7501
Carsport Holland
2000 Le Mans 24h, Chrysler Viper GTS-R. This ex-Oreca Viper is ran by Dutch Carport Holland, an initiative from Team Hezemans. They normally compete in the European FIA GT Championship. In Le Mans they were the best privateer in the GTS class behind the factory Vipers and Corvettes.
2002 Le Mans 24h, Chrysler Viper GTS-R. Team Carsport Holland returned to Le Mans this year after their fine race in 2000. They had to abandon the race with a damaged car but were never in the position to threaten the mighty Corvettes.
2007 Spa-Francorchamps 24h, Corvette C6.R. Carsport Holland drove this Corvette C6.R to victory in 2007, thanks to an off from favorite Van de Poele in his Maserati. Last year, the same team (under the name GLPK) was close already to victory also but slowed down by gigantic oil consumption.
- #57 Mike Hezemans (NL) / David Hart (NL) / Hans Hugenholtz jr (NL) – 13th / 6th in GT2 | MINICHAMPS MC430 001457
- #53 Mike Hezemans (NL) / Anthony Kumpen (
B) / Gabrielle Matteuzzi (FI) – DNF / damage | IXO LMM035
- #5 Mike Hezemans (NL) / Marcel Fässler (CH) / Jean-Denis Delétraz (CH) / Fabrizio Gollin (I) – 1st | PROVENCE kit
Racing for Holland (Lola)
1999 Le Mans 24h, Lola B98/10 – Ford. Dutchman Jan Lammers started Racing for Holland and invited countrymen Peter Kox and Tom Coronel to join him. He hired this Lola and the services of Franz Konrad, which explains the German flag on the side of the Lola. Unfortunately the gearbox broke down after 213 laps and the car had to retire.
1999 Le Mans 24h, Lola B2K/10 – Ford. Just as in last year, the Racing for Holland team was run by Franz Konrad. This year they used the new and aerodynamicaly improved Lola B2K/10. Tom Coronel lost a wheel, he stopped the car, got out and went to collect it. He walked away more than 30 meters from the car. This was judged as abandoning the car, Tom was not allowed to continue and the team got disqualified.
- #26 Jan Lammers (NL) / Peter Kox (NL) / Tom Coronel (NL) – DNF | SPARK SCLA03
- #20 Jan Lammers (NL) / Peter Kox (NL) / Tom Coronel (NL) – DSQ | SPARK SCLA05
Racing for Holland (Dome)
2001 Le Mans 24h, Dome S101 – Judd. The Racing for Holland team from Jan Lammers appeared for the 1st time in Le Mans with the Dome with 4.0 liter Judd engine. Already quick but not yet reliable, it retired with electrical problems. Unique is the sponsor concept with the little black and white advertisements where companies could participate for a small amount.
2002 Le Mans 24h, Dome S101 – Judd. Racing for Holland appeared for the second time in Le Mans with the Dome-Judd. They were competitive thanks to the high topspeeds of over 338 kmh / 210 miles/hour. Racing for Holland won the FIA Sports Car Championship this year.
2003 Le Mans 24h, Dome S101 – Judd. Racing for Holland appeared for the 3rd time in Le Mans with the Dome-Judd, this year with a two car team. from which #15 with a very strong line-up was the fastest. Due to lots of problems they only finished 6th, just seconds from the 5th placed Panoz. Gommendy crashed the #16 car in the last hour, throwing away a good finish. The team did win the FIA World Sports Car Championship for the second time in as many years.
- 2001 #9 Jan Lammers (NL) / Val Hillebrand (NL) / Donny Crevels (NL) – DNF | EBBRO 43211
- 2002 #16 Jan Lammers (NL) / Val Hillebrand (NL) / Tom Coronel (NL) – 8th | EBBRO 43447
- 2003 #15 Jan Lammers (NL) / John Bosch (NL) / Andy Wallace (GB) – 6th | EBBRO 43490
- 2003 #16 Beppe Gabbiani (I) / Felipe Ortiz (COL) / Tristan Gommendy (F) – DNF | EBBRO 43491
- Special is that they all have a removable engine cover
2004 Le Mans 24h, Dome S101 – Judd. Again Racing for Holland appeared with two cars and a strong driver line-up at the start of the 24h race. Both Domes had lots of problems but managed to finish.
2005 Le Mans 24h, Dome S101 – Judd. Despite some financial support from Jumbo, Racing for Holland had big budget problems and so it started with only one car. However the Dome was becoming an old car now they still managed a credible 7th place overall.
- 2004 #15 Jan Lammers (NL) / Chris Dyson (USA) / Katsutomo Kaneishi (J) – 7th | SPARK S0055
- 2004 #16 Tom Coronel (NL) / Ralph Firman (GB) / Justin Wilson (GB) – 19th | SPARK S0056
- 2005 #10 Jan Lammers (NL) / John Bosch (NL) / Elton Julian (USA) – 7th overall / 5th LMP1 | SPARK S0057
2006 Le Mans 24h, Dome S101 – Judd. At the same time as the 24-hours of Le Mans, the European football championship was played. So Racing for Holland turned its black and white livery into a football this year. Again Lammers raced with one car this year, but with a new 5.0 liter engine and with some impressive drivers. Unfortunately Yoong was too unexperienced at Le Mans and crashed the car in the dark.
2007 Le Mans 24h, Dome S101.5 – Judd. This was the final year for Jan Lammers and his old Dome, however it had a small upgrade and was named S101.5 this year to match the changing regulations. Jumbo again sponsored the team, but resources were minimal. Jan Lammers went bankrupt soon after, because of losses in the Dutch A1GP team and that was the end for Racing for Holland. The Dome factory would bring a brand new S102 to Le Mans next year, but without Jan.
- 2006 #14 Jan Lammers (NL) / Stefan Johansson (S) / Alex Yoong (MAL) – DNF | EBBRO 43728
- 2007 #14 Jan Lammers (NL) / Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL) / David Hart (NL) – 25th / 8th LMP1 | SPARK S1425
Racing Team Nederland
2017 Le Mans 24h, Dallara P217 – Gibson. Frits van Eerd is an entrepreneur and CEO from Jumbo supermarkets. He is an absolute motorsport fan and has been sponsoring Jan Lammers for many years. Now he has his own team: Racing Team Nederland with which he participates at Le Mans in LMP2. Frits himself is the gentleman driver in the team and he asked two ex-formula 1 drivers to join him. Of course one is Jan Lammers and the other Rubens Barrichello.
2018 Le Mans 24h, Dallara P217 – Gibson. The 2018 Le Mans 24-hour race was part of a “super season” which started in April 2018 and lasted until after Le Mans 2019. Rubens Barrichello was replaced by former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde. Racing Team Nederland finished 6th in LMP2. After the race, Jan Lammers would step down as active driver. He started 24 times in Le Mans, winning it once in 1988. Jan was replaced by Nick de Vries for the remaining races of the super season.
2019 Le Mans 24h, Dallara P217 – Gibson. Racing Team Nederland’s last race with the Dallara. Most of the LMP2 field has switched to the Oreca 07, and so will they after Le Mans. It was a troublesome race anyway with a big crash when the front suspension collapsed in Indianapolis corner.
- 2017 #29 Jan Lammers (NL) / Rubens Barrichello (BR) / Frits van Eerd (NL) – 13th overall / 11th LMP2 | SPARK S5816A
- 2018 #29 Jan Lammers (NL) / Giedo van der Garde (NL) / Frits van Eerd (NL) – 11th overall / 6th LMP2 | SPARK SAM302
- 2019 #29 Giedo van der Garde (NL) / Nyck de Vries (NL) / Frits van Eerd (NL) – 26th overall / 15th in LMP2 | SPARK S7914S.
- All models come with driver’s signatures on the plastic displays.
2020 Le Mans 24h, Oreca 07 – Gibson. After Le Mans 2019, Racing Team Nederland switched to the Oreca 07 and TDS as technical supplier. It was an instant success: A first LMP2 pole position and podium were achieved in Silverstone and the 6 hours of Fuji resulted in a victory. Le Mans was less successful unfortunately.
- 2020 #39 Giedo van der Garde (NL) / Nyck de Vries (NL) / Frits van Eerd (NL) – 19th overall / 15th in LMP2 | SPARK S7969 (1:43 scale)
- and | SPARK 18S553 (1:18 scale)
Fun fact: Frits van Eerd has a large collection of historic Formula 1 cars including some Minardi. Did you already notice something familiar in the company colors from Jumbo? By now, Jumbo has stopped all sponsoring because of irregularities in money transitions by Frits van Eerd …
Thanks for visiting 🙂