After more than 25 years in the sport, five European Super Twin Top Gas titles and five years in Super Twin (twice number three in the UEM European Championship and a number four position in 2012) for Job Heezen the last race of the 2012 season seemed to be the right moment to take a step back from racing. But after two months, he got that strange feeling. Was it the right decision to stop? Why not go on for another few years? You can also quit after another two or more seasons? Since last December Heezen is the proud owner of the ex-Lo Stäuble/Urs Erbacher Super Twin and ready for a new challenge.

Right moment

“Since 2008 I raced the ex-Ton Pels Zodiac Godfather machine in the UEM European Championship. As owner of a Citroen and Harley Davidson garage, running the full championship took too much time. So when Ton and Vincent Pels asked me at the end of the 2011 season to take over Roel Koedam’s driver seat, it was the right offer at the right moment. I only had to go to the races and didn’t have to spend time at home to service the bike. But I was used to running my own bikes for 25 years and during last season I missed the tuning part and working on the bike too much. I’m not the kind of person to come to the track, race from start to finish and that’s it. So although Ton and Vincent asked me to stay, I thought it was the right moment to quit. One day the moment is there to give up racing and maybe this was the right moment”, Job says about the first weeks after the European Finals.


Heezen left with the 2012 European super twin bike champion Nate Gagnon


Stäuble on action at Hockenheim


Heezen launching at Santa Pod

Job Heezen

Doubt

“But two months later I was not so sure anymore. Was it the right decision to quit? I’m not the youngest driver, but my reaction times are still okay and as a racer I’m as good as all the others. Then my daughter Eveline came in and said it did not feel good we would not be racing anymore. We had a dinner with Roel and Monique Koedam and they did not like the idea too. A year ago Roel and now me. It would be boring at the tracks. That made me think even more and I said to myself, okay, why not race for another few years. You can always give up whenever you want, in two, three or four years. There were also racers from Norway and Finland asking me to go on and also important was the fact, the 2013 FIM European Championship would only have four races, so I would not be too long and too many times away from my business.” But the ‘old’ bike, the former Godfather he raced until the end of 2011, was sold to Norway, so that was no option anymore.

Build to race

“Of course we knew the Lo Stäuble machine was still for sale. But we also looked at some options in the USA, normally-aspirated Super Twins too. I prefer normally-aspirated, as it’s more reliable. I want to race the whole weekend and not have to give up in the quarter or semi-final because the bike broke. And I think there is room for improvement for normally-aspirated Super Twins. We knew Lo’s bike, it’s a good, fast, reliable, state-of-the-art and well maintained machine. And this beautiful bike was built for racing and not for collecting dust in the workshop. So we decided to go for Lo’s bike. I called Urs and within 24 hours we had a deal”, Job tells about why they wanted to have the Swiss machine. The bike will get the familiar blue colours as all Job’s Super Twin Top Gas bikes had for at least 20 years.

Go straight

Like all the years before Job will do the servicing of the bike himself. Assistance will as usually come from his wife Winnie and their daughter Eveline. New kid on the block is ..…..Roel Koedam. “When we had that dinner Roel said that when I didn’t stop, he would help me at the track. So he is part of the crew.” Job will do the four FIM European Championship races, but his season will start at the non-championship Main Event. “That will be very exciting. Everybody says the bike went sideways because that was Lo’s driving style. After the Main Event we will know. This bike is smaller than I’m used to, but I like smaller and lighter bikes. Maybe I have to get used to the lower driving position, but we will see. I think it suits my driving style. If we run good numbers at Santa Pod, I will try to go for the 2013 European title. The bike came race ready from Urs’ shop, but we will make some minor adjustments. I have some ideas to make it a bit faster, but we have to see if these changes work out. With 6.647 seconds this is still Europe’s quickest normally-aspirated Super Twin, but I think it can do better. And as my personal best is 6.51 seconds (Easter Thunderball 2012) it would be great to do even better with this bike.”