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Father, son travels range far and wide for NASCAR

Holland natives continuing quest to visit every Cup track

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/features/01/13/father.son.holland.nascar/index.html

NASCAR fans, it’s been reported, travel an average of 250 miles for a race. For Simon and Peter van Hijkoop (pronounced high-kup), the average distanced traveled is almost 20 times as far. To be more exact, the father and son from Holland trek roughly 4,500 miles — one way — to watch their favorite drivers trade paint.

NASCAR fans since 2006, van Hijkoops have been to 13 Cup Series weekends together in the past three years; Simon first traveled on his own to Atlanta in 2006. They’ll continue their personal quest to visit every NASCAR track on the Sprint Cup circuit in February for the Daytona 500.

A longtime Formula One enthusiast, Simon van Hijkoop says NASCAR has many appealing qualities. “Action, accessibility and value,” said Simon, a former track official at the Zandvoort Circuit — home to the Grand Prix of Holland until 1985. “I am a big open-wheel fan — Formula One. I also follow the German Touring Cars and other racing series in Europe.

“But a few years ago a friend of mine went to Atlanta for a race and told me, ‘Simon, you must go to see NASCAR. It is amazing;’ so we decided to give it a try.”

In 2006, Simon heeded his friend’s advice and with the help of his son, Peter, booked his entire trip via the Internet. Simon soon was flying across the Big Pond on his way to the United States for his first taste of stock-car magic.

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To date, the van Hijkoops have visited Daytona, Atlanta, Talladega, Phoenix, Bristol, Texas and Richmond. Some of their most memorable experiences include walking up and down pit road at Richmond, meeting a NASCAR legend and gazing in awe at NASCAR’s modern-day coliseums like Bristol, Texas and Talladega. “Those places are huge — it is really amazing how many people there are,” Peter said. “But meeting Richard Petty was most exciting.”