Toine Hezemans

Antoine Emile "Toine" Hezemans
Toine Hezemans at the Circuit Zandvoort in 1973
Born (1943-04-15) April 15, 1943 (age 81)
Eindhoven, Netherlands

Antoine Emile "Toine" Hezemans (born 15 April 1943, in Eindhoven[1]) is a Dutch former touring and prototype racing car driver in the 1960s and 1970s. After retiring from racing, Hezemans started manufacturing karting engines. He developed the Rotax 100 cc engines into a World championship winner in his new factory at Eindhoven Airport in Holland. His Rotax engines won 10 times the world championships in various classes and wiped out the Italian karting competition. He sold his company Bombardier Rotax Holland b.v. back to Bombardier in Canada in 1996. In 2000 he started his own team with Dodge Vipers and won numerous races in the Gt 1 Championship. He made a deal with GM in the USA and got hold of 2 Corvettes C6 and was successful privateer Team, winning 2 times the 24 hours of Spa. One of the drivers was his son, Mike Hezemans. Even today he has a European Nascar team where his sons Loris Hezemans and Liam Hezemans won the European Nascar championships 3 times. Since 1978, he is very active in real estate projects in Miami, Brussels and Amsterdam.[2]

Hezemans won the European Touring Car Championship in 1970 with Alfa Romeo GTAm and in 1973 with BMW 3.0 CSL and in 1975 the Euro GT class with Porsche 934. In the 1970s Hezemans drove also Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 prototype racers, winning the 1971 Targa Florio with Nino Vaccarella in an Alfa Romeo 33/3.[3]

In 2022, Team Hezeberg joined Nascar Cup, fielding a Ford Nascar. Team Hezeberg was a partnership between Hezemans and Ernest Berg. Jacques Villeneuve did the first race for the team and after that Loris Hezemans drove 5 races. Daniil Kvyat was added to the roster by fielding a Toyota. Due to training limitations Team Hezeberg stopped at the end of 2022 season.

Toine has three sons: Mike Hezemans, Loris Hezemans and Liam Hezemans.

Wins

[edit]

Le Mans results

[edit]
Year Team Co-Driver(s) Car Class Laps Pos Class

Pos

1970 Italy Autodelta SpA United States Masten Gregory Alfa Romeo T33/3 P 3.0 5 DNF DNF
1973 Germany BMW Motorsport Austria Dieter Quester BMW 3.0 CSL TS 5.0 307 11th 1st
1975 Germany Gelo Racing Team Netherlands Gijs van Lennep Porsche 911 Carrera RSR GTS 316 5th 1st
United Kingdom John Fitzpatrick
Liechtenstein Manfred Schurti
1976 Germany Gelo Racing Team Australia Tim Schenken Porsche 934 Gp.4 GT 277 16th 2nd
1977 Germany Gelo Racing Team Australia Tim Schenken Porsche 935 Gr. 5 269 DNF DNF
Germany Hans Heyer
1978 Germany Weisberg Gelo Team United Kingdom John Fitzpatrick Porsche 935/77 Gr.5 +2.0 19 DNF DNF

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Hezemans, Toine (NL)". teamdan.com/people. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
  2. ^ Toine Hezemans profile on SnapLap: Toine Hezemans profile on SnapLap, accessdate: 11. heinäkuuta July
  3. ^ "Toine". historicracing.com. Retrieved 2010-10-12.