Dutch Rally Championship (Group B era)

With few rally roads at home, the Dutch championship ran many of its rounds abroad, on the Belgian and German asphalt rallies. Its Group B era ran from a Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo and an old Escort to two titles for Jan van der Marel’s Opel Manta 400 and a Swedish champion in a Ford RS200.

2
titles for the Opel Manta 400
1986
Ford RS200 champion
1
foreign champion
1983
title for an Escort RS1800

Champions

Year Driver Car
1982 Wim Luijbregts Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo
1983 Henk Vossen Ford Escort RS1800
1984 Jan van der Marel Opel Manta 400
1985 Jan van der Marel Opel Manta 400
1986 Stig Andervang (Sweden) Ford RS200

Rounds abroad

eWRC-results.com lists several European championship rallies as rounds of the Dutch championship as well: the Boucles de Spa (1982–84), the Haspengouw rally at Landen and the Lucien Bianchi in Belgium, the Hunsrück Rallye in Germany (and the Hessen Rallye in 1984) the Ypres 24 Hours in 1983 and, the same year, the Rallye du Valais in Switzerland. Dutch crews therefore met the Belgian and German Group B regulars on their own ground.

Van der Marel’s Manta 400 and Andervang’s RS200: the Dutch championship, most of it raced in Belgium and Germany.

Stories

  • Jan van der Marel, champion in 1979–81, won two more titles in a Manta 400 in 1984 and 1985. In 1985 he travelled as far as Bulgaria, winning the Hebros rally (an ERC round) with Lieuwma, and was third on the Saturnus rally in Yugoslavia.
  • Stig Andervang, a Swede, won the 1986 title in a Ford RS200. In 1984 he had been second at Landen in a Ford Escort RS1800; in 1986 he was second on the South Swedish and Hunsrück rallies.
  • Rothmans Audi Team Holland ran a Quattro A2 for John Bosch, third on the 1986 Boucles de Spa.
  • Henk Vossen, the 1983 champion, finished second on the 1985 Rajd Polski.

The champions list comes from Dutch Wikipedia only; we have not found a second source for it. The rounds abroad come from eWRC-results.com’s event tags, and the full Dutch calendars were not available to us. Andervang’s car on his 1986 podiums is not given in these sources.

In pictures 1 photos

A Ford RS200.
A Ford RS200.Photo: Calreyn88 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

More from Championships

Finnish Rally Championship (Group B era)A separate Group B class from 1983, won every year by an Audi Quattro: Lampi, Laine and Heinonen on Finnish snow and gravel.Read more →Irish Tarmac Rally Championship (Group B era)Coleman, McHale and the Opel Manta 400 on the narrow asphalt of Galway, the Circuit of Ireland and the Lakes.Read more →Portuguese Rally Championship (Group B era)Santos’ Escort and Moutinho’s Renault 5 Turbo, plus the Madeira rally: Portugal’s championship in the Group B years.Read more →Spanish Rally Championship (Group B era)Zanini, Ortiz and Servià — and the young Carlos Sainz — in the Spanish championship from 1982 to 1986.Read more →Belgian Rally Championship (Group B era)Spa, Ypres and the Condroz: Duez, Snijers and Droogmans in the Belgian championship from Porsche to Ford RS200.Read more →Italian Rally Championship (CIR, Group B era)Jolly Club, Grifone and the private Lancias: the Italian championship from Tognana’s Ferrari to Cerrato’s Delta S4.Read more →

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (NL), Nederlands kampioenschap rally — https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederlands_kampioenschap_rally
  2. eWRC-results.com, FIA European Rally Championship 1982 (event results) — https://www.ewrc-results.com/season/1982/6-erc/
  3. eWRC-results.com, FIA European Rally Championship 1983 (event results) — https://www.ewrc-results.com/season/1983/6-erc/
  4. eWRC-results.com, FIA European Rally Championship 1984 (event results) — https://www.ewrc-results.com/season/1984/6-erc/
  5. eWRC-results.com, FIA European Rally Championship 1985 (event results) — https://www.ewrc-results.com/season/1985/6-erc/
  6. eWRC-results.com, FIA European Rally Championship 1986 (event results) — https://www.ewrc-results.com/season/1986/6-erc/

All text is original writing for Grouve Sports Management Group, based on the sources above. Facts checked on 21 October 2026.

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Thumbnail photos on this page: BWard 1997 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0); Florian Volk from Deutschland (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); _morgado (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Mr.choppers (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0); InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0).