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Toine Hezemans

Dutch racing driver (born 1943)

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]

• Winner of the European Touring Car Championship 1970 and 1973
• Winner of the Targa Florio 1971
• Winner of the Spa 24 Hours 1973
• Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the TS category 1973 and GTS category in 1975
• Winner of the European GT Championship 1976
• Winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona 1978
• Winner of the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen 1978

Le Mans results[edit]

Year	Team	Co-Driver(s)	Car	Class	Laps	Pos	Class Pos
1970	Autodelta SpA	Masten Gregory	Alfa Romeo T33/3	P 3.0	5	DNF	DNF
1973	BMW Motorsport	Dieter Quester	BMW 3.0 CSL	TS 5.0	307	11th	1st
1975	Gelo Racing Team	Gijs van Lennep	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	GTS	316	5th	1st
		John Fitzpatrick
		Manfred Schurti
1976	Gelo Racing Team	Tim Schenken	Porsche 934	Gp.4 GT	277	16th	2nd
1977	Gelo Racing Team	Tim Schenken	Porsche 935	Gr. 5	269	DNF	DNF
		Hans Heyer
1978	Weisberg Gelo Team	John Fitzpatrick	Porsche 935/77	Gr.5 +2.0	19	DNF	DNF

References[edit]

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