Today the RTR Crew sat down with J-WRC driver Hans Weijs Junior from The Netherlands. As reported a few weeks ago iOpener tested with with Hans amongst others during the Veldenz Super Special Stage that was part of the ADAC Rally of Germany.
After the successful test to investigate the feasibility of an iOpener Enabled WRC Game it was now time to have a word with the winner of the J-WRC Hans Weijs Jr.
Hans inherited his rally genes from his father who has a successful career in the rally sport that started back in the 80s. The Dutch rally icon won many national and European titles with his wife Carla reading the pacenotes in the early years. It doesn’t come as a big surprise that with so much motorsport talent in the family Junior automatically followed the footsteps of his parents and kick-off a rally career of his own.
In 2005 he is a part of the three best participants of KNAF Talent First in a competition with Ford RST in the Dutch Rallyracing Championship after which his name is settled in the Dutch rally scene.
After his impressive debut a year with the Mitsubishi Colt CZT follows and competing his first rally with the car he outclasses his more experienced opponents and takes the first win with a four minute margin.
In the 2007 season the road to the WRC is open and an ambitious project starts with a newly built EVO 9 allowing Hans to compete in the Group N class at a few WRC events. In 2008 the KNAF Talent First Team Holland brings their most promising talents (Hans and Kevin Abbring) under one roof and wants them to race in a FIA sanctioned series: The Junior WRC in which he drives with big success today with a Citroen C2.
Hans how do you look back on your victory in Germany?
I can be really short with my answer: A dominant victory where I outpaced the rest of the field with more than a five minute margin. It was a well deserved taste of victory after all the hard work that me and the team have done to achieve this result. Especially after the poor start of the season where we had some bad luck with no points as a result.
What are your goals for the rest of the season?
We are going for the top spot on the ladder of course. With the French and the Spanish round of the championship ahead I am only going to settle for the overall victory in the drivers’ championship.
It will be a tough fight between myself and my leading opponent Burkart from Germany to see who eventually becomes champion. The upcoming races we will see some wildcard drivers entering the championship and I hope they will be competitive enough to classify between myself and Burkart which obviously gives me more space to reach my goal.
Our readers and beta testers would like to know from each of our test pilots if they are gamers themselves. Are you a simracer when you are not behind the wheel of your Citroen?
Haha, not at all. For gaming you are obviously talking to the wrong guy as I know absolutely nothing about computers or gaming in general. I grew up in the carshop of my dad and cars and technique is all what I am interested in since young age.
Due to our combined tests you are familiar with our iOpener Enabled technology that allows gamers from home to compete in real-time with the real drivers on the track. What is your view on this technology?
Despite the fact that I am not a simracer myself I am enthusiastic about this application and I am really looking forward to take it up against thousands of gamers when the technology will be applied on the WRC.
Hopefully it will be made available on a very realistic racing game as that might bring me behind the virtual wheel myself. Nevertheless bring those gamers on and see if they can keep up with me!
We want to give gamers the opportunity to develop their racing and rally skills and give them a platform to be picked up by the real talent scouts. You started your career in a KNAF talent program yourself. What should gamers at home do to prepare themselves for a career in motorsport?
First of all they need a lot of dedication. I can only speak for myself and I am 100% determined to succeed as a rally driver. Literally all my time is sucked up by this sport. I either work very hard to earn some money that goes directly into the rally project or work on the car to bring it in top condition to be successful. Be prepared to offer yourself zero free time as you will need to be in perfect shape to be a rally driver. I spent a lot of time in the gym to be in great shape to give all I have in the car during the special stages of the J-WRC.
I think your comments speak for themselves. You have the ambition to achieve the ultimate goal. Are we talking to the future WRC champion?
That depends on a lot of factors. First of all I want to become J-WRC champion this year. Secondly as with every form of motorsport I rely on good sponsors Nowadays I spend way too much time on getting the best out of the car and also try to finance my rally project. Hopefully a big sponsor comes by and recognizes the potential that I have as a rally driver. All those factors combined can lead to the ultimate goal to become the best rally driver in the world.
Read more about Hans Weijs Junior: www.hansweijs.com
Photo: Willy Weyens
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