Jan De Groot, Rest In Peace
"It is with great sadness that we received the news that one of the true greats of the motocross world, Jan De Groot, passed away this morning after a brief hospitalization," reported Motocrossplanet.com. De Groot is one of the most successful and influential team managers in the history of Grand Prix Motocross. "De Groot, who was universally respected for his easy going, yet efficient management style, was known as a champion maker, and riders such as Greg Albertyn, Sebastien Tortelli and Dave Strijbos achieved top honors in the motocross world championships under his guiding hand."
This season, De Groot was working with Billy Mackenzie and Tanel Leok on the official Kawasaki factory MX1 team. Ironically, Mackenzie won the most recent round of the series in Japan. De Groot did not attend, as he was hospitalized as he battled cancer. We will have more on the highly-respected De Groot as news becomes available.