Be inspired by this extraordinary race story
‘Opi (grandpa) Nijs’ competed alongside top performers such as Freddy Loix....
'Opi' Phil Nijs only came into contact with motorsports around the age of 18, when he could regularly be found on the motocross track in Genk (Horensbergdam). Because of his business, he unfortunately had to stop racing, but supporters convinced him to get back into motorsports. He was only 33 years old when he was rallying alongside top drivers such as Freddy Loix, Patrick Smeyers and François Duvals' father. According to Phil, he himself actually still knew far too little about rallying or motorsports, as he had never really had a proper education. Still, he managed to win quite a few in that period including the 'Rally of Isle of Man', Montecarlo and the Mille Miglia race in Italy. Furthermore, he trained a 4 to 5 other co-pilots who eventually ended up in the top ranks in Belgium....
Opi Nijs wonders to this day, "If I had had the opportunity back then to really enjoy a solid education.... How far would I have gotten?"
Comeback at age 70!
At 70, Phil made his comeback in rally sports with son Danny as a co-driver at the seizoensrally in Bocholt. Why he started rallying again at 70 and after years of inactivity? "That's in it huh, it doesn't let you go.
It is 'poison'…
Furthermore, Phil also introduced his daughters to the sport and soon daughter Mary-Rose became his co-pilot. When second daughter Patricia also got the rally jitters at 24, she too became Opi's co-pilot for a while. Unfortunately, this did not last long. Patricia: "Driving myself was no problem, but sitting next to someone in the car and not driving it myself was nothing for me. It literally made me sick. I did learn a lot from Opi during that period". Then Patricia started in slalom with a Mini Cooper, but this was no longer a challenge after a while. Furthermore, she was asked by the then Genk mayor to be one of the few female pilots to co-drive the Ford Fiesta Cup. Alongside 60-year-old co-pilot Christina Ruysenvelts, Patricia finished third in Opi's Subaru. After that, Patricia also drove for a while with her own wife as co-pilot, but due to their company Multyconstruct, they both no longer had time for rallying or other motor sports. Yet it still itches often, "it's simply a poison" both Phil and Patricia agree. Of course in the positive sense... The 600 cups in our garage are the ultimate proof of this, the downside is that you have to dust them all....
Grandson Sam Nijs takes up the torch
Patricia: "Now the focus is completely on our son Sam. The ultimate goal is to build a Classic Mini Cooper with Sam, so he can learn a lot about mechanics. Through slalom he learns agility and cornering. Karting is completely different from rallying, but also in karting it is important to keep a clean driving line, so we will be on the karting circuit of Genk very regularly. In principle, the combination of karting with rallying should be feasible. By the way, our golden family rule is: "there is no such thing as impossible".
No more coincidences
Why Sam started karting? Opi grants his grandson everything and wants to give him every opportunity in terms of education. He never had those chances himself and always wondered how far he would have gotten if he could have had a decent education himself. On the other hand, Patricia's wife Inge (also called "mami" by Sam) asked if he wanted to go karting.
Furthermore, it was simply written in the stars, because Phils' first motocross number was 38, mami Inge rode in number 38 and Sam's first kart number was also the number 38! Coincidence? No... Simply meant to be.
.jpeg)
