From Graham Hill to Fast Freddy Loix, new book celebrates the Ypres Rally

Ypres Rally 50 Years, which is available in Dutch, English and French, looks back on the rally’s half-century and reveals that Ypres’ links with the sport actually began on 18 January 1964 when the Automobiel Club Targa Florio, founded in 1963, organised a checkpoint for Rallye Monte-Carlo in the town’s famous Grote Markt.

“For the occasion all the public buildings were lit up and the traffic lights were switched off,” an extract from the book reads. “During their ‘concentration leg’ en route to Monaco 130 teams made a short stop over in Ypres. Among them was the F1 legend Graham Hill, at the wheel of his Ford Falcon Sprint Futura.

“One year later Jean-Pierre Vandermeersch in his Mini won the Eerste Interstallen Criterium. This local Austin dealer would never have thought that with this victory he would be the first to feature in the Ypres Rally record book, 50 years later a top event of the Belgian and European rally championships.”

The book is the work of the respected Hugo Van Opstal, the Ypres Rally press officer and editor of Autonews, for more than two decades the leading motorsport magazine in Belgium. According to a press release, Van Opstal “plunged into the archives of Targa Florio and VZW Superstage and spoke to numerous trendsetters to gather up some great stories. Ranging from Gilbert Staepelaere’s broken hand via Henri Toivonen’s talked about victory and Juha Kankkunen’s blunder through to the ninth record-victory of Freddy Loix, everything is to be discovered in this 256 pages book, spiced up with numerous action photographs and all the results of the previous 50 editions”.

Ypres Rally 50 Years can be ordered online for 40 Euros excluding postage and packing. Click here for more information.