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January 22, 2010
Can not say that I’m alone at his planet. I have met in the short period while I’m in the rallycross a lot of nice people. Of all kinds and in all sizes. Young, old, men and women. It’s is one big family with one interest and that is the beautiful sport that is called rallycross. When I look back it was a good choice of me in the summer of 2009 to go hitch-hiking trough Europe. My first action was in Hungary and traveled in a photo-bag from a Norwegian photographer. It was from Hungary to Austria. With some help of a few good friend we did this nice trick. I took the place in the bag instead of a full-size 300 mm lens. The lens was hidden in somebodies truck. You must have seen the face of that poor guy when he opened his photo-bag in Austria and saw me instead of his equipment. That was fun. Yep really good. Anyway being I Rallycross and traveling around it brings me at several kind of places and everybody wants to write his name on my belly. Yeah yeah okay. It’s big enough. But everybody is taking good care of me and giving me food and drinks and my dear Mom (yep also Gnomes has moms) learned to eat my plate empty. So I do that.
I was in Strasbourg lately and was present at the FIA Off Road seminar. Almost every Clerck of the Course and organizers of Rallycross events in Europe was present during that seminar. Of course I had one of the best places. In front, sitting at the same table as the President of the FIA Off Road Commission, Mister Andy Lasure. Who I’m grateful that I was invited to take part in this the seminar. It was very interesting.
At the end of this seminar the president wrote his name on my belly. I’ve two presidents who wrote their names on my belly. The Prime minister of Tatarstan Mr. Minnikhanov (I was in Tatarstan for a few weeks with him) and the president of the FIA ORC. I like it in rallycross.
Ole says bye. On the road again to...
:: Ole has a new career as ???
There's a rookie on the entry list, Ole has built himself a DIV 1 A car from Russia !! Maybe it has some secret 'gnome power' :-) wish him all the luck this weekend in France..
POSTED BY erc-newbie on May 7, 2010 19:59
January 21, 2010
Hello there boys and girls. This is again Ole Nordmann with an update where I’ve been the past weeks. Stayed a few weeks in Holland. A part of my job was to guard and rotect the house when Henk went shopping in the Applestore at Fifth Avenue in NY. Because I have no passport it was safer for me to stay in Europe and keep an eye on the things that happened in Rallycross. Was quite easy I must say. Not much news was coming up. Must have been the holidays.
As an inspector and a full-time traveller I went in the beginning of January to Strasbourg in France. The job for me there was to check out the hotel. It was not bad. It was called the Hilton. I would love to meet Paris. The city Paris is also okay but I mean Paris Hilton. That is another mission in my agenda. I heard and saw that there were good parties going in the bar of the Hilton until late at night or must I say early in the morning. Anyway, I had a good rest and a good time in the Hilton. Friendly people. No. Before you ask it. I had no own room. I shared a room. Well half, because I had to do an extra nightshift. I saw some people using each other cellphone and they where sending txt messages to a lady who went to her room. You know me. As a guard I took post before that room. It’s my job to protect the ladies from those ugly guys. Sorry boys.
Ole says hi and hope to see you all soon.
December 24, 2009
Hi there boys and girls, men and women and who else is watching. This is Ole Nordman. In case you wondering what is or was Ole doing. Well I’m still in Holland. Boy o boy what a mess last week with the snow and the traffic in Holland. Can’t understand that. Father Xmas, a good friend of mine, has never problems to start up his sledge and he is living in the North pole. If you are talking snow and cold. Go there I would say. The whole country overhere was going nowhere. Cars where stuck in the snow at the roads or simple at the parking place. Big trucks where blocking the roads. Trains and busses stopped driving. The whole infrastructure came to halt. I had some ideas to solve that. Send everybody to a racingschool in Scandinavia. That will learn them how to drive a car in the winter. Ole did that years ago an love to go sideways. I tried to phone up the prime minister of Holland but he was busy they told me. Mmmm. Ole was not happy whit that answer. I have very good connections with prime ministers in the whole world. Tatarstan has a nice bloke and he drives racingcars. He is my favorite so far and he loves the dust, mud, rain and snow.
What did Ole do the past weeks? I was not far away from the fireplace. Drunk some wine and beer. Eat some cake (yep the original Dutch one) and took a nap or two. Not before of course I completed my mission at the Eurocircuit. The work the FIA bosses requested is now for 99 percent done. The guardrail is standing now at the startline. There was only a small problem by putting up that requested guardrail. You know the boss of the Eurocircuit Mister Noordermeer. Yep that one, the man from the grass. He could not find the proper guardrail he said. Ole was thinking hard an could remember that close to the Eurocircuit at Eindhoven they are building a lot of new roads and there was laying miles of guardrail. Let’s phone up one of the constructors and ask for 60 meters of guardrail. So Noordermeer did, but the guardrail used in Holland is complete different then the drawings and the request of the FIA, the Eurocircuit boss told me. The nowadays used Dutch guardrail is a double one with special holders between them, specially designed to reduce the impact of a collision. Cars don’t bounce back on the road. A lot of the impact-energy is absorbed by this design. The FIA requested one is a single 3 layers up, said Noordermeer. It’s has to come with a big steel pole behind the guardrail. It took the Eurocircuit several months to find that guardrail. But it’s standing. Ole checked it. It 3 layers high and begins at the startline alongside the track.
Ole and the crew of ERC24 wishes everybody a really very, very good Xmas and a happy, sportive, healthy, and what ever you need and wish to make you feel good and happy in 2010 and beyond. Hope to see you all in good shape and health at one of the tracks in Europe.
Ole will be there also.
Ole. Who is preparing a Xmas diner with a lot of mushrooms. They have special shops here in Holland. The so called smartshops. Selling special herbs and mushrooms. Funny country. Cows, windmills, cake and mushrooms.
Ole who has planned a meeting with a lot of big bosses.
Yo. Have fun and take care.
December 1, 2009
Hi there folks this is Ole Nordman just returned from a special mission in Holland.
I was for a few days the guest at the Eurocircuit. I had the chance to talk with some people working at this Dutch track. Hard working volunteers that are there almost every weekend to keep the track in good shape. I had to the change to talk several times with the boss of the track Mister Noordermeer. When I asked what his job was. He said: “I’m responsible for the grass.” Ole knows with his long garden experience a lot of grass, flowers and ponds of course. We Gnomes are really good garden specialists. We had a long talk about several types of grass. The hight. Thickness. Speed of growing. Which kind of equipment to use. When is the best time to race with the lawn mower over the grass. When we had a laugh about this subject we hopped inside the office. It was bad weather so at my age it’s better to stay inside with some coffee. Time for some serious talk. Besides the grass Noordermeer does also a lot of the administrative work that has to be done to keep the circuit rolling. The circuit-boss gave me access to the all the official papers. The track was the first on the main continent in Europe and the current organizing comity has organized so far more then hundred International races and 18 ERC events.
Ole found out that running a racingcircuit in Holland means spending a lot of hours in preparing paperwork, making phone calls, writing letters, go to meetings, waiting on documents from local and provincial officials and have correspondence with all kind of official institutes. “If we think of long term planning like in a normal business model this is ‘normal’ daily work for us.”
Boy o boy what a lot of official papers and they are written in a language that hardly is to understand for a normal person. But Ole can read and understand all languages. I checked the FIA track license which shows that it’s valid till the end of 2011. Ole says lets race. But not over the grass. :o)
Ole [who did more investigation]
:: Rallycross instead of Rallyracing !
Hey Ole Nordman,
Please explain to mister Noordermeer that whole Europe is calling our sport 'Rallycross'. At the Eurocircuit you can only watch 'Rallyracing', strange ... That should be a big stap forward for the racingcircuit and Holland in general.
POSTED BY Gert on December 9, 2009 15:43
:: Grass?
Hey Ole, watch out for those Dutch guys and the grass…
You know they have grass, and they have 'grass', just go easy if they offer you a cigarette – or a cake!
POSTED BY Whittington on December 2, 2009 11:10
November 20, 2009
It’s almost a week ago now but I’m still overwhelmed by the fact that I was able to speak with Mister Dakar ,Jan de Rooy. I knew that Ome Jan started his career at the Eurocircuit in Holland with a DAF (of course). Jan was one of the first drivers that saw the advantage and potential of the four wheel drive in rallycross. From Belgium I went to Holland to meet Ome Jan and asked him if he wants to put his autograph on my belly. Boy o boy what a man is that. After the race Jan ran into another Jan.. Jan Lammers. Lammers has in his career almost driving everything from Touring cars, open wheelrs to Le Mans and almost everything between it. For the first time Lammers was driving a Dakar racetruck. Lammers is a ‘short’ guy, a bit like me. Okay a bit taller then. Jan de Rooy askes Jan (the short one) how was it in the truck. “Well good nice. Have to learn a lot. So far so good.” Then asks Ome Jan to Lammers.”How can you get your feet on the pedals. Did you mount some wooden blocks on it”.
Ole says hi (Still on an inspection mission).
:: Ome Jan for President
Read the column about Ome Jan in the upcoming edition of Autosportmagazine START. Fantastic. Ome Jan for President and Minister af Traffic.
POSTED BY Henk on November 21, 2009 15:33
November 13, 2009
Hi there. The job is finished. Jos Sterkens can drive his mobilhome trough the whole of Europe. We, Jos and me, had a lot of work to do. In August there was this ‘small’ accident when Jos turned into the main gate at the Duivelsberg. Another car drove straight into the side of the mobilhome of Jos and his family. Luckily nobody was hurt but the damage on the mobilhome was severe.
It’s fixed now. The damaged in-and outside is as new again. Only some small things must be done. Jos can do that by himself he told me. “Sometimes we have to wait on spare parts”, said Jos. “The parts are coming from Italy and they already shipped me three times the same but wrong part”, said Jos. “That is only a minor detail”, he smiles. For the moment Jos, driving the D2 Ford Focus, is thinking hard to skip some of the European races. “Ten races from Portugal to Finland is a long way and for the moment I think to skip the Scandinavian races. It’s expensive and a long way to travel”, he said.
Here is a picture of me working hard inside the mobilhome.
Ole (Busy with an inspection job)
:: :D
now are you Belgian !
POSTED BY Qba on November 14, 2009 18:24
November 6, 2009
Hi folks. This is Ole Nordman. I guess you wonder where is Ole. Well I’m still in Belgium.I have to use all my skills and relatives to check out something. I knew that one of the ERC- drivers lives in a town called Hoogstraaten, close to the Dutch border. It hides a nice story with goes back a long time and it seems that Vikings are involved. Time to do a special Ole Nordman investigation.
The story is that a historian in the 18th century launched a theory that Hoogstraaten was founded by a Viking, called Gelmel. With my Scandinavian roots time to visit that place, the hometown of Jos Sterkens, the multiple Dutch, Belgian and European rallycross Champion.
It seems that there was indeed a viking called Gelmel around an he and some others Vikings. (You know us. We never travel alone. :o)) and did some ‘business’ in the area. I had contact with some old-relatives but nobody could remember him. What I found out is that the story of this Viking Gelmel goes back to the 9th century. At the end of the 19th century the theory was accepted that Gelmel was the founder of Hoogstraaten. But the 17th century source that the historian used speaks of Huns, not of Vikings. No Gelmel in Hoogstraaten and neither did I find archaeological evidence of the presence of Vikings in that time.
That’s cleared out. Some have to re-write history now. Jos called me just now. He had a job for me to do .
Ole (in the repair business now)
October 10, 2009
Yo boys and girls out there. Cannot wait to tell you what happened yesterday. Boy o boy. You all know that I’m staying with Ko Kasse and his family in the southern part of Holland. After cleaning up the garden, looking after and feeding the sheep, chickens, the dog, the ducks, and some pigeons it was time to do some serious work said Ko. Oei that sounds too hard work. Let’s clean up the attic above the workshop was the task for me. Rims, tires, axles, spare parts in all kind of sizes for the D2 Opel Astra is there too find. At the end of the day we reached the corners of the attack. I saw a some boxes and a shoebox. I looked into the shoebox. Boy o boy. I could hardly believe my eyes. It was full of silver coins and some paper money. I showed it immediately to Ko. “Good work Ole” he said. “I was forgotten where I put this shoebox.”
Time for a family meeting at the kitchen table. “First thing we do is drink a beer to celebrate the fact that Ole has found the shoebox we were lost”, said Ko. Because the box with his content was found above the workshop it was quickly decided that it must be spend the racingcar, the European championship and a new bus. Here it is folks. Next year Ko will do more races in the D2 Astra in the ERC and driving trough Europe in a new bus. Is that good news or what.
Back to normal work now. The Astra must be prepared for the last race in Belgian Championship.
Ole (Who is digging in the garden for more..)
October 8, 2009
Hello this is Ole Nordman. I’m staying at the moment with former European Rallycross Champion Ko Kasse in Holland. While Ko is working hard in his workshop. I was outside helping his wife Tess in the garden and I picked up for a few days my old job. Just for the fun and to help of course. My task was to keep an eye on the animals around the house. It was good to pick up my old job. For a Gnome no problem. We can do this work for days, weeks or months. We Gnomes don’t care about a workweek of 40 hours or more.
While I was working in the garden, near the pond, one of my favorite spots. I picked up another fine story. While rebuilding the farming house. The plan was to put on a new roof on the barn of the Kasse residence. About 8 to 10 people were helping to place the roof. Meanwhile the old wood and rubbish was put on a field where it, in the beginning of the evening, by accident caught fire.These things can happen you now. The flames reached about twenty to thirty meters high up in the sky. Suddenly the pager of some of the ‘crew’ went off. As members of the voluntary fire brigade they went off and drove straight to the fire station. Minutes later they came back in a firetruck with all the sound on and the bleu lights flashing. Seems that there was a fire somewhere. :o)
Ole (hard working and having fun)
October 8, 2009
Hello this is Ole Nordman and I want to share again with you some fine moments I had in the past few weeks.
First I was in the fine small hands of Juna-Jane in Belgium. It was hard to say goodbye from that lovely girl who took very good care of me. Her father Michaël has to hide me in his car otherwise I was still probably living in Belgium. :o)
Walking trough the paddock and watching the races in Maasmechelen I came in contact with the Ko Kasse, his wife Tessa and daughter Mandy. Boy o boy what a stories you can pick up there. Ko, several times Dutch, Belgian and European Rallycross Champion, he can tell you a few racing-stories. I will tell you one. But don’t tell anybody else. Keep it as a secret. It goes a long way back. Ko was at that time racing in a regional championship in Holland. He came in contact with a journalist/photographer from a newspaper, who is now accidentally working for ERC24. The ‘deal’ was quickly made between those two. The VW Beetle of Kasse would drive a bit of the track during the race. The photographer had according to Ko the opportunity to make a spectacular photo. Full trothle, complete out of the track the car was everywhere and half on the natural banking, a dike. And the picture you ask. Well it made the newspaper the next day. This is only one story. Now you see me here pictured with the daughter of Ko and Tess, Mandy. She is the 2009 Dutch Champion in the Ford RST. Seems that she is going to step into the footsteps of her father. As you know we Gnomes are always hungry. Some Belgian food help me trough the day. I was allowed to eat some of the ‘friet met mayo’. Think I going to have a nice stay in Holland.
Ole (who will keep his ears wide open for more stories.)
September 19, 2009
Hello this is Ole Nordman at the moment I’m staying in Belgium. I’ve a new girlfriend. Yep. And her name is Juna-Jane. What a lovely girl this is to play with. She is so friendly and she is really taking good care of me. I enjoy every minute of being a part of the family of Michaël de Keersmaecker. It’s very relaxing.being away a few days from the hectic of the paddock. When Juna-Jane's daddy was working we both went for a ride on her bike in the country side. Of course we took some off road section on our trip. She is already getting into the footsteps of her dad.
Goodbye from Ole and his new girlfriend Juna-Jane.
September 17, 2009
Watching Rallycross, doing photoshoots, walking in the paddock, talking to people makes hungry. So I ran into this nice bloke from Belgium who invited me for some Italian food. Spaghetti he said is full of carbohydrates. As a good sportsman he told me that 60% off his food is based on carbohydrates. It’s in fact extra power for the man or woman behind the steering wheel in the racing car. This nice guy, European Champion in 2007 and 2008, Michaël de Keersmaecker, helped me a bit an took care that my new shirt kept clean. You know how we Gnomes are. Sometimes a bit messy. I had a good meal and after a good meal we Gnomes are always taking a rest. I was allowed to have short nap in the bed of the driver. Sorry for those who where looking for me in Ceska Lipa.
Ole (Having a good time in Belgium)
September 16, 2009
After my trip with Sverre Isachsen to his workshop in Norway. I was walking trough the paddock in Slomczyn in Poland. I met the team of Zdenek Cermak. He invited me to stay with him for a week to visit some nice scenery in the Czech Republic and he said he had a very special trip in mind for me. Well who am I to ignore such a nice and kind invitation. So hop in the bus and of I went with my new friends. It was a beautiful trip from Poland to the Czech Republic. I stayed with Zdenek in his house for a few days in the beautiful city called Ceske Budejovice. A famous city for his Budweiser beer. Not the American stuff. No here is the the original European Budweiser brewed. The cityhall at the marketplace was fantastic and also the castle Hluboka.
Anyway after some sightseeing we went to Prague to the TV studios of CT4 Sport TV.
Zdenek had an interview and talked about the upcoming race in Ceska Lipa. I stood a bit on the sideline. You know me I’m a bit shy sometimes.
But it was a fantastic experience to be in the studio of a professional broadcasting company.
Ole (the rising star) and on his way to...
September 16, 2009
Hi there rallycrossfans this is Ole Nordman. I was at the last race in Ceska Lipa in the Czech Republic. What a race it was at the end in division 1 for the championship. Boy o boy. Congratulations to Knut, Mats and Sverre. Al Norwegians. :o). I enjoyed every minute of the show at the track. I enjoyed also the fact that I was invited for a photoshoot on the startgrid with one of Czech Republics fastest drivers, Pavel Koutny. What I did not know that there were some girls on the grid to work with me. Strange clothes they wearing. Never seen this before. As you can see I enjoyed the photoshoot.
Ole
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Ole Nordman
Registered: 08.06.2009 01:27:41
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