Eppie Wietzes, originally from Assen, emigrated with his family to Canada at the age of thirteen, became a race car driver, and even started twice in a Formula 1 Grand Prix. His son, Mike Jan Wietzes, was there and recalls the memories. “Dad introduced me to Graham Hill, Colin Chapman, and Jim Clark. I didn’t really realize how special those men were at the time.”
Drenthe, shortly after World War II. The Netherlands is in reconstruction. The population has reached ten million, but there is still a great scarcity. The government encourages ‘migration’, as emigration is then called, by offering various retraining opportunities. This way, anyone interested in a future as a farmer can learn to milk cows within six months. Canada is a popular country for emigration, partly due to the Canadian soldiers who made a big impression during the liberation.
Jan and Klazina Wietzes from Assen, like many compatriots in those early post-war years, are interested in a Canadian adventure. Together with their sons Egbert and Bert, the couple moved to Toronto in 1950, where father Jan started a car garage. Egbert was twelve years old at the time and soon adopted the name Eppie.
Regional Dealer of Morris Minor
Wietzes’ car company grew into the regional dealer of Morris Minor, the small British car that is the precursor to the famous Mini. There was a lot of racing with it, and when Eppie was about eighteen, he also ventured onto the circuits. First with a Morris from his father, later with a Sunbeam Alpine. In 1958, Mike Jan Wietzes was born.
“My father was still very young when I arrived, only twenty years old, but it never stopped him from continuing to race,” Mike Jan tells from Canada. The now 67-year-old Mike, unlike his father, does not speak Dutch. “My father did maintain contact with his parents and I heard him speaking Dutch on the phone with our family, but everyone spoke English at home.”
