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Gijs van Lennep (L) receives the limited edition trilogy from the hands of Dutch Pon-Porsche Import MD, Ray Uiterwaal. Writer Rob Wiedenhoff is holding the book.

Last Thursday my Winter Trial Co-Driver Joost Cohen and I attended a small get together at the home of publisher Frank Kloppert (a.o. Carros Magazine). The occasion was the launch of a gorgeous new Dutch/English collectors trilogy about the lives and careers of Carel Godin de Beaufort, Ben Pon and TwinSpark friend Gijs van Lennep. Pon-Porsche Import had sponsored the publication of this work, written by three Dutch motoring journalists.

The three men honored in these books have stimulated the imagination of several generations of boys and men, with their skill and daring behind the wheel of, mostly, Porsche race and rally cars. Carel Godin died many years ago behind the wheel and but his sister, Ben Pon and Gijs van Lennep were in attendance to receive the first copies of this unique document.

The event was presented by Carlo Brantsen of Carros magazine and presenter of a popular car show on national radio. Ray Uiterwaal, Mr Porsche in the Netherlands, handed out the books and several enthusiasts had been invited through an online contest to explain why they have such great memories of the subjects of the books. The atmosphere was very special, not in the least due to the spectacular residence, but certainly due to the presence of the Porsche hard core community which surrounds Ben and Gijs.

i spoke a while with Kees Kooy, chairman of the Historic Auto Racing Club, together with Jan Berkhof, both expert rally navigators in their day. Jan organises the Porsche Classic Challenge which is due to start on the 21st and Joost and I will run in this 65 car only Porsche organized 3 day event in Silverado. The improvement on the sunglass-paint-job will have to wait and it’ll be a nice warm up for the BergMeister Tour!

Later Joost and I spoke to Gijs van Lennep and his wife Jenny to convince him to participate in the Winter Trial again. Gijs is very excited about driving the Carrera Panamericana for the first time this year, at age 70 mind you, together with motorsports benefactor and collector Albert Westerman. But Gijs enjoys the Winter Trial sufficiently that he went looking for a particular candidate navigator right after we ended our conversation…. Let’s see if he managed to convince the victim!

The book trilogy will be available from Porsche dealers in the Netherlands, but we didn’t have to wait for their arrival and could all take a copy home at the end of the event. Take a look at the cover and you’ll get a glimpse of the beautiful artwork.

Many thanks to Ray Uiterwaal for the invite and letting us share in this special moment!

The book and the invitationThe three components of the trilogy...The three components of the trilogy...

The three components of the trilogy...