Editors: Marcel Visbeen, Dennis Drenthe, Mattijs Diepraam. Feedback: feedback#carelgodindebeaufort.nl (# = @). This tribute site is in no way connected to the Beaufort family.

Anton Geesink

b Utrecht (Netherlands), April 6, 1934

A Dutch sporting legend, Olympic judo champion Anton Geesink helped out Carel in the racer’s final part of his career. With Carel’s lanky build working against him, he got obsessed with losing weight and increasing his fitness, in an attempt to get himself into a shape that would help him keep up with the works drivers.

Geesink met Carel in a small Utrecht pub, sometime in the early sixties. "He had a funny walk", Geesink remembers while talking to Carel's biographer Frits van Someren. "Like he was wearing shoes that were too small and had nails in them. He was a tall guy and weighed over a 100kgs. I told him to shape up. Initially, he didn't think it would help but in the end he came to our gym after all. I advised him to come during lunch or dinner, so that he would skip those meals. It worked. Getting stuck into our work-outs he lost quite a few pounds. I believe it won him at least a second, which enabled him to move from the back to the midfield. This was the period in which he scored his World Championship points." However, having a quick team mate in the form of Gerhard Mitter made Carel find out that he was still handicapped by his weight. Following his apprentice around the Nordschleife he found that they drove the same lines but still Mitter beat him consumately. The young German explained the gap with his tender weight of 60kgs, which must have hurt Carel.

Into 1964 Carel and Geesink lost touch but the judo champion was told that Carel was keeping fit. Carel's death came a month ahead of Geesink's victorious presence at the 1964 Olympic games in Tokyo.

Carel and the people in his presence

This section features the stories about the people who were around him while he was alive – his family, his friends, his mechanics, his entourage, his co-drivers, his rivals.