by Rosemarijn Atalante Veenenbos

Yesterday I discovered more about the amazing life of Maria Teresa de Filippis. Someone told me that I reminded him of her, which is the most wonderful compliment possible. I learned soon, as I started looking up her name, what a legendary female race driver she was, always wearing her lovely helmet… Just like my CHAPAL helmet. The combination with Maserati is epic as I love Maseratis, including their new masterpieces.

Everyone is telling me that I drive too fast, that I take too many risks, but I love risks and driving the maximum speed possible. It is my true passion, although I never experienced real track racing. Once I was spinning with my BMW thru the bends of the Circuit Zolder. It was for the first time that I experienced this, and it was amazing. I love adrenalin, the crazier the better. To see what Maria Teresa did makes the desire for such a life in me even stronger, something that has been living inside me for a long time. Maybe I should fulfill my wish and get my racing license, which was already on my to do list.

Another story I can tell after this past weekend goes like this: During a lovely evening I was talking with some of the most interesting men, one of whom was the father of a legendary race driver: Marcel Albers, who many of us will remember. It is very sad that he left this world at such a young age.  He was definitely on his way to become one of the very best, in addition to being a gentleman driver. His dad told me that evening, that he had to cheer up the gate boy at the circuit after Marcel had crashed. The gate boy cried and cried, because Marcel was the only one who was nice to him and almost always chatted with him. The rest was ignoring him and driving over his feet. If Marcel had no time for a chat he always waved to him with a kind smile. These are the little differences that make a gentleman driver, make a person even more famous and popular. In addition to being a talented driver, personality is equally important. Maria Teresa is another example of this wonderful combination. The whole story of Marcel Albers and how it all started was amazing.

When Marcel was still at school he had his first car, a VW Golf, if I remember well, and his dad didn’t allow him to take it to school as he was the only boy with a car. One of the teachers was a very bad driver and parking his car was hilarious to watch for the students. He needed to get out at least twice to see how it was going, while all students laughed at him. Then one day Marcel couldn’t resist parking next to him, but in quite a different way… He drifted his car right next to the car of the teacher, and the teacher was shocked! Jaques, Marcel’s dad, had to speak with the school director and tell him how sorry he felt for the behaviour of his son, just to calm them. That’s just a small part of the story about Marcel Albers. He was king of the circuit, who must still be watching us from above and, who knows, he may have secretly given Max Verstappen some good advice from above.

I was quite disappointed that Jacques Albers’ lovely Toyota 2000GT didn’t get an award in the international concours. It is one of the finest examples of this masterpiece from Japan and for me a real winner! Soon more about this car in the Concours d’Elegance Palace Het Loo report. The other great man, who was speaking had worked some 50 years for Louwman. He knows the museum and all cars by heart and told me great stories about the museum and some history. I can assure you that the Louwman museum is a place you must have visited and probably more often then once…

This is a subject I can speak about for hours, but most of all let’s honour and cherish the great legends Marcel Albers and Maria Teresa de Filippis.

My ultimate dreams and goals in life are: 1) dealing in the finest and exceptional automobiles, and 2) racing in masterpieces, nothing else than that. And once I set goals, I can’t be stopped until I have achieved them, period.

I will end this story with a great quote I found:

“I am an artist, the track is my canvas and the car my brush” – Graham Hill

PS. I will do my best on the lay out with grey text Wim, which is not perfect, but thats easier said then done with a WordPress blog… I need to change the theme and, hope it will not screw up my site…