Jack Middelburg stands in the middle on the podium of the 1981 British GP with Kenny Roberts and Randy Mamola. (Henny Ray Abrams photograph)Dutch fans will always remember the 1980 Dutch TT in Assen. That was the year their countryman Jack Middelburg overcame a slow start and pushed to the front before breaking away to win in dominant fashion, sending his fellow Dutchman into a frenzy. The large partisan mob yelled “Jackie, Jackie!” as they celebrated Middelburg’s home Grand Prix victory.
Middelburg was at the height of Dutch Grand Prix success. From 1977 to 1981, Wil Hartog won five Grand Prix races on Suzukis. Boet van Dulmen won the Finnish Grand Prix in 1979 driving a Suzuki. In the final 500cc Grand Prix standings in 1979, the three Dutch riders finished in the top ten, with Hartog fourth, Van Dulmen sixth, and Middelburg seventh.
Middelburg was raised in the farming settlement of Naaldwijk, a tiny town southwest of The Hague. He began road racing in the mid-1970s and quickly rose through the ranks in Dutch competitions. He won his first Dutch national title in 1977, just two years after starting.
Middelburg had a reputation as a hard-nosed rider who wouldn’t give an inch on the track, and his supporters started nicknamed him “Jumping Jack” after the Rolling Stones’ song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”
Middelburg made his GP debut at his home Dutch TT in 1977, finishing a decent 11th in his 500cc debut with Suzuki. He began racing on the GP circuit in 1979 and quickly rose to become one of the top riders in the premier GP class. In his first full season, he scored a podium, coming second to Barry Sheene at the Swedish GP at Karlskoga.
In 1980, Middelburg switched from Suzuki to Yamaha, promising a machine equal to the one ridden by World Champion Kenny Roberts. It did not quite work out that way.
Boet van Dulmen, Middelburg’s teammate in 1980, stated that the customer Yamaha GP motorcycles were quite disappointing that season. The Yamaha was supposed to be a duplicate of a factory Yamaha, but van Dulmen claimed the motorcycles independent teams received that year were far from competitive out of the box.
“They promised us other engines,” Van Dulmen stated in an interview with Frank Weeink for MotoPlus. “The first time we tried them, we were disappointed. The engine’s power was lower than planned, and the handling was not ideal for putting in softly. Importers who purchased the Yamaha for riders also complained. We were in the same boat as Barry Sheene and Patrick Pons. We hoped for much more. Even before the first race, I asked Nico Bakker to design a frame. However, they could not begin immediately because it needed to be paid for. Who paid for the frames? “I think Yamaha.”
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