Larry Lawrence | April 12, 2017
Jack Middelburg stands in the middle on the podium of the 1981 British GP with Kenny Roberts and Randy Mamola. (Henny Ray Abrams photo)
Dutch fans will always remember the 1980 Dutch TT at Assen. That was the year their countryman Jack Middelburg overcame a poor start and battled to the front before pulling away to win in dominating fashion bringing his fellow Dutchman to a frenzy. The massive partisan horde chanted “Jackie, Jackie!”, thrilled to see Middelburg win his home Grand Prix.
Middelburg was part of the high-water era for Dutch success in Grand Prix racing. Wil Hartog scored a total of five Grand Prix wins, between 1977 and 1981 riding Suzukis. Boet van Dulmen won the Finnish Grand Prix in 1979 on a Suzuki. In 1979 the final 500cc Grand Prix standings saw the trio of Dutch riders all finish in the top-10 with Hartog fourth, Van Dulmen in sixth and Middelburg seventh.
Middelburg grew up in the farming community of Naaldwijk, a small just southwest of The Hague. He began road racing in the mid-1970s and rapidly climbed the ranks in Dutch events. He won his first Dutch National title in 1977 barely two years after starting.
Middelburg earned a reputation as a hard-nosed rider who wouldn’t give an inch on the track and his fans began calling him “Jumping Jack” after the Rolling Stones hit “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”
Middelburg made his GP debut at his home Dutch TT in 1977 where he finished a respectable 11th in his 500cc debut riding a Suzuki. He became a regular on the GP circuit in 1979 and it didn’t take long for him to become one of the leading riders in the premier GP class. In his first full season, he scored a podium, finishing second to Barry Sheene at the Swedish GP at Karlskoga.
In 1980 Middelburg jumped from Suzuki to Yamaha with the promise of a machine that would be identical to the one ridden by World Champ Kenny Roberts. It didn’t quite work out that way.
Boet van Dulmen, who was Middelburg’s teammate in 1980, said the customer Yamaha GP machines were very disappointing that season. The Yamaha was to be a replica of works Yamaha, but van Dulmen said the motorcycles independent teams received that year were far from being competitive out of the box.
“They promised us other engines,” said Van Dulmen in an interview with Frank Weeink for MotoPlus. “From the first time we tried them, it was disappointing. The engine’s power was less than expected and the handling was less than ideal to put in kindly. Importers who had bought the Yamaha for riders also were complaining. We were in the same boat as Barry Sheene and Patrick Pons. We had hoped for much more. Even before the first race I asked Nico Bakker if he could make a frame. But they could not start immediately, because it had to be paid for. Who paid for the frames? I think Yamaha.”
Jack Middelburg outduels Kenny Roberts to the line in the 1981 British Grand Prix, one of the most exciting race finishes in GP history. (Henny Abrams photo)
Van Dulmen was injured when the new Bakker frames were tested, but watched Middelburg in his first test at the Salzburgring. “With the new frame Middelburg was better,” he recalls. “it wasn’t really that much better, but we were trying to be positive since Yamaha was putting the money into improving the machine.”
The start of the Dutch TT in 1980 was delayed to allow time for Roberts’ crew work on his Yamaha, which experienced problems with its brakes just before the start. According to Van Dulmen the delay worked in Middelburg’s favor, allowing the track to dry a bit from the full wet it might have been had they started on time.
Longtime Assen race official and friend Jaap Timmer recalled the memories he took away from Middelburg’s win the Dutch TT in MotoPlus. “Those slicks on the still wet track … That bad start …. And when he came to ride in front: the roar of the crowd! With that gamble with the tires he had luck on his side, but Jack was decisive. In my experience, it was not such a big surprise like when Hartog won in 1977. Jack was already on pole, so there was already a certain expectation. Still, it was a surprise that he won. Jack was always good for surprises. “
Middelburg’s second GP win came at Silverstone in 1980 where, riding a Suzuki, he won out over Roberts in a last-lap duel. It was one of the closest GP finishes on record and Middelburg had beaten Roberts straight up, something very few riders could boast at that time. You can watch the race on YouTube.
He raced on the GP circuit through 1983.
Sadly, Middelburg passed away on April 2, 1984 as a result of head injuries suffered the day before in a multi-rider crash during a Dutch National road race in Croningem.
“Jack was a very gentle man, multi-faceted and very dry humor.” Timmer added. “He was very quiet, but also with a lot of talent. Sometimes being with him could be an adventure. The day Jack won the British GP in 1981, he’d overslept and I had to wake him up. We drove him to the track while he was still in his pajamas!”
Countryman Wil Hartog gave perhaps the greatest praise one might ever hear from a fellow racer and GP winner. “I always saw him the fastest of the three of us,” Hartog said in MotoPlus of the trio of Dutch 500cc GP riders, Jack, van Dulmen and himself. “He was sometimes too fast. Some days he was invincible. That day in Assen everything went his way and it was one of those days he could not be beaten.
“Jack and I were great friends. Our women at the time got along well and little Jacky (Jack’s son) often came to stay with us. The race at Silverstone was exceptional. Even Barry Sheene had not managed to beat Roberts at the track, but Jack did it! He was a great sportsman. I thought of highly of him. He had a big heart. After he won the Dutch TT he came to me and consoled me for having a tough race.”
