Home Personalities Ferry Brouwer's early career
Ferry Brouwer's early career

What many of you (if not most) do not know, is that Ferry Brouwer was a talented Sprinter some 35 years ago.....! Time flies when you are having fun (especialy on a sprinter of course)

On the first picture we see Ferry (in the centre) examining a part (carburetor?) of his Sprintbike in 1973 at the Amsterdam Port track. He built the machine himself (the frame is still lying around somewhere). The engine was a works Yamaha Motocross engine which ferry received from Mr. Nomura, one of Yamaha's brilliant two-stroke wizards at that time.

Ferry Brouwer Sprintteam 1973
Ferry Brouwer Sprintteam 1973
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Here you see Ferry during full acceleration on the strip. He won his first race in Valkenswaard in 13,01 sec (quarter mile). Won also his seond race in Vlissingen and came home second in Amsterdam. Not bad for a start!!! (Probably Heineken Beer was involved in mixing Ferry's verrrryyyyy special fuelmix!)

Ferry Brouwer 250 cc Yamaha sprinter
Ferry Brouwer 250 cc Yamaha sprinter
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His sprintcareer started with this 1969 Bultaco powered machine, here seen in Uden (south of Holland), the place were the first sprintevents were held.

Ferry Brouwer, Uden, NL, 1969, Bultaco 250 cc
Ferry Brouwer, Uden, NL, 1969, Bultaco 250 cc
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But Ferry's (you can say) lifelong Yamaha connection started when he met Minoru Tanaka on the Zandvoort Circuit in 1967, when he was there with his father. Tanaka introduced him to the Yamaha factory team and it "clicked" immediately, forever......

Ferry Brouwer and Minoru Tanaka, 1967
Ferry Brouwer and Minoru Tanaka, 1967
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Ferry met his future wife Margriet in the Yamaha office, here in 1972.

 

Margriet Brouwer, YMNV 1972
Margriet Brouwer, YMNV 1972

 

A good shot of that season that promised so much at the start, here Hockenheim 1973

Ferry/Jarno, Hockenheim 1973
Ferry/Jarno, Hockenheim 1973
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And a picture taken during the weekend that was to be the most tragic in Yamaha history and the Motorsport in general, the Monza GP weekend in 1973

Ferry/Jarno, Monza 1973
Ferry/Jarno, Monza 1973
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After Ferry left the Yamaha team he worked for some time for Ton van Heugten, who was a gifted Motocross rider. When Ton tried his hand at sidecar motocross, Ferry was there to build (of course) a Yamaha XS650 powered outfit. The engine was enlarged several times, to finally (I do think 910 ccm). Here you see Ferry flying through the air (I do hope he knew that this is quite a painful hobby.....) Anyway, Ton van Heugten became European Champion with this bike in 1975.

Ferry Brouwer, XS powered sidecar
Ferry Brouwer, XS powered sidecar
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This nice picture should have come earlier, but it does not matter so much. Early already in 1966 Ferry tried his hand at Roadracing, here with a 50 ccm bike I think at the Zandvoort circuit (he will correct me when I am wrong of course!)

 

Ferry Brouwer racing in 1966
Ferry brouwer racing in 1966

 

The last picture from this very mixed series shows Ferry during a dinner in Japan with his (and my) old Boss, Mr. K. Kuratomo and his wife and his old friend Mr. Matsui (in jeans). Very few people do know that Mr. Kuratomo (who was based in Amsterdam) was instrumental in convincing Yamaha Japan to continue with roadrace (productionracers), when all the other factories stopped. So actually all TZ fans have to thank him, otherwise there would have been no bikes, and maybe no races whatsoever all those years.....!

 

Dinner with Kuratomo
Dinner with Kuratomo

 
 

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