32 replies to this topic

[SlowToyCars]

Onyx backer Van Rossem dies
 

[The Number of]

He was a character!

[Pappy]

Read the two comments at the bottom.

[Half Fast]

In addition to everything else, he supported slot racing with real money.
 
Cheers,

[MSwiss]

While certainly a character, he was easily slot racing's most prolific fund raiser, and many racers got to attend top events courtesy of his hard work.

May he Rest in Peace.

[bradblohm]

We need more slot car promoters on his scale! Is there any doubt of who is in the upper-right corner?
 

[Cheater]

I never met the man, but do appreciate what he tried to do (and did) for slot racing.

It is interesting to me that those in slot racing who did meet and interact with him generally have positive things to say about JP.

However his CV contains a great deal of negative history.

In any case, RIP, JP.

[MG Brown]

I heard from JPvR via email several times, usually to protest that my race reports didn't contain the information that he wanted to read.
 
Most memorably I was the target of his ire about coverage of one of the USA-hosted ISRA worlds events where pit photos were published. JPvR complained that he only wanted "race results" published. At the time of his correspondence the racing in that event had yet to begin...
 
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I should apparently be flattered since certain of my reports on US events were copied to his blog without as much as a credit.
 
Perhaps we need more flamboyant showmen such as JPvR in our hobby/sport, without the surrounding legal dramas, but I am not sure.
 
Note of interest: JPvR apparently wrote a book entitled "Hoe kom ik van de ground?", in which he and a few friends reviewed and rated the various Belgian houses of prostitution.

[Cheater]

Yep, lots of warts in JPvR's CV.

IIRC, he got himself elected to the Belgian parliment(?) while in prison for running a Ponzi-like scheme because some stupid (IMO) Belgian law prohibited members of that body from being be incarcerated and thus secured his release.

Vague recollection here and I welcome posts from anyone who has more accurate info.

[eshorer]

If nothing else, he certainly put his money where his mouth was, when it came to flying slot car racers around the world to participate in races that he organized. I'm sure Howie can contribute a story or three here! I'm sorry I never got to meet the man, and the legend. 

Eddie

[Pappy]

Vague recollection here and I welcome posts from anyone who has more accurate info.

 

Contact Dokk.

[MSwiss]

IIRC, J.P.'s legal woes were based on Moneytron, which again, IIRC, was some sort of matrix to predict the stock market..
 
I'm not sure if we were traveling on ill-gotten gains, or if the sponsors he drummed up, were legit, but he would pull together events like the one, with the pictures below, with maybe, two-four weeks notice.
 
I had to make special trips downtown, to get a last minute visa and passport.

J.P. Van Rossem flew us into Paris for the weekend, for a race in the hallway of an engineering school in Paris, racing non-wing cars, on the huge track shown.

Some of the highlights was the hiring of marshals from the nearby Catholic girl's high school.

After the regular racing, they held a race for the marshals, using wireframe chassis, Mura C-cans, with some sort of 12/15/20 arm, and late '60s Can-Am bodies.

Csaba was running the "repair shop," with up to five cars waiting in the queue.

J.P., Jan Limpach, and Dan DeBella were betting $100s on the race.

The girl with the white headscarf ran away with the race, because she grew up with a brother with a home track, and seemed to be the only one who understood the concept of slowing down in the turns.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cheater]

There's no arguing that JPvR exerted a positive influence on international slot racing.

But his 'Moneytron" scam, I'll term it, generated $900 million in ill-gained profits. Should we overlook that aspect of his activties?

[MG Brown]

I'm sure Howie can contribute a story or three here! I'm sorry I never got to meet the man, and the legend.

 
Yes, Howie has mentioned his travels funded by JPvR. IIRC the "Battle with the Gods" (2009) was one of his events. The late Dave Fiedler, Paul Gawronski, Terry Schmid, and Fred Hood were among the American racers invited.
 

 

 

 

 

 
I believe these photos were from Howie's camera but I cannot be certain.

[MSwiss]

There's no arguing that JPvR exerted a positive influence on international slot racing. But his 'Moneytron" scam, I'll term it, generated $900 million in ill-gained profits. Should we overlook that aspect of his activties?

 
Greg,
 
I copped the below off of his Facebook page. No surprise he seemed to succumb to lung issues.

Nice programme on VIER about Jean Pierre van Rossem (73), one of Belgium's most colorful and eccentric people.

When he was at his top, Van Rossem owned a yacht, two airplanes, one hundred Ferraris, seven castles, a Formula 1 racing team, and he sat on a few billion dollars.
 
He smoked three million cigarettes, slept with hundreds of women in the best hotels in the world, drank bottles of $3,000 wine, and indulged in pretty much anything he could get his hands on.
He's a former stock market guru, an economist, a published author, a philosopher, a public figure, a cartoon figure, a politician, and former member of Parliament. Do you feel insignificant yet?

And then he lost it all, even ended up in jail, and now Belgium's most sympathetic crook and guerilla intellectual lives in a small apartment in Nowhereville, Belgium, looking back at his extraordinary life.

This is not feel-good television, but a program about the fading of life, fame, status, love, money, and of all the things we first thought were so important. Part 2 is next week. I'll be watching. I've always been drawn to eccentricity and nostalgia, and this qualifies.

----

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

[eshorer]

Mike:

 

Do you have a link to the program on VIER? The only thing I can find is blocked for playing in the US.

 

Thanks.

 

Eddie

[MSwiss]

No, I don't.

[Half Fast]

PdL and JPvR got into a heated exchange of invective once on OWH. I'd tell you what was said but it was in another language.
 
Cheers,

[Zippity]

JPvR and I had many "heated" discussions on OWH and we frequently exchanged emails.
 
In December 2003 he sent me $500US  as a consolation prize for partaking in one of his online motor quiz/competitions, and offered to fly me over to Europe to compete in one of his "weird" races.
 
He may have been eccentric, but he was always a gentleman.
 
RIP, my friend.

[MSwiss]

While at lunch, I Googled his name.

 

He's listed as a "Belgian guru".

 

I just glanced over his Wikipedia listing, and no mention of slot racing.

 

And when you click on "Images", nothing slot racing oriented until you go pretty far down the page., before you get to the the below.(add "slot cars" and you get some mildly interesting stuff)

 

As you would expect, J.P.'s "images" are like James Dean, mostly with cigarettes in his mouth.

 

[4wheeldrift]

I read that he passed away yesterday.

RIP, JPvR.

[raisin27]

My most vivid memory of JPvR was at one of the Chicago Worlds races.

I was teamed up Boyt Johnson in one of the flexi enduro races. Now Boyt is an excellent wing racer, but was quite out of his element racing a non-wing flexi car and 10 minutes into a two-hour race the car was bent like a pretzel!....

We repaired it and as I was driving in my heat I heard JVvR as he was announcing the races say... "Raisin Garrett is the fastest man on the track now, but his teammate has him so far behind he could never catch up!" 

I started laughing so hard I had to stop my car on the straightaway until I could stop!

[Zippity]

"Jean-Pierre Van Rossem passed away at the UZ Jette. The ex-stock guru was 73 years old. Van Rossem had been struggling with his health for some time and was rushed from his apartment in Kapelle-op-den-Bos to the hospital on Tuesday. There he died yesterday. An overview of his adventurous life, in fifteen photos and seven videos."
 
The adventurous life of Van Rossem in fifteen photographs and seven videos [translation of Dutch original title]

[Howie Ursaner]

JP was larger than life. He was like a comic book character. He operated on a different level. Attending his racing events was like a carnival. You never knew what would happen next. He gave lots of money to slot car racers around the world because he wanted the best to be at his races. He was always looking for ways to make slot car racing bigger and better.

He changed my life in a major way with three trips to Belgium and one to Barcelona spain, introducing me to the european racers and transforming me into an international traveler. I owe him a lot, It was insanity, and he would torture us but in the end i loved it. I am happy to say that we became friends and I hold that dear to me. He has two great sons that I became friendly with also.

Thank you, JP, for being you. RIP.

[MSwiss]

... owned 100 Ferraris...
He smoked three million cigarettes

There is a self-portrait of him Facebook, with a Ferrari 250GTO and holding a cigarette.

I guess that's how much he enjoyed smoking, and identified with it.

At the raceway last night, his name got brought up and that was all I needed to analyze the 3 million cigarette claim.

If he started at 13, that would have him at almost 137 cigarettes/7 packs a day.