Jaak van Velthoven

Jaak Van Velthoven is a Belgian former motocross 500 cc Grand Prix Rider. His best individual performance was a third place in the 500 cc World Championship in 1973 with Yamaha. In that year Yamaha brought a mayor improvement on the rear suspension by introducing the revolutionary Mono Shock. Until then, all motocross bikes had a dual shocks suspension.

Jaak rode on Husqvarna, on Yamaha and on KTM.

He performed in the sixties, seventies and eighties of the 20th century.

Jaak was selected many times to represent Belgium in the team to win the Motocross des Nations, resulting in the victory in 1972, 1973, 1976 and 1977.

Because of his tall size it was not difficult to distinguish him in the pack and he was often referred to as 'Long tall Jaak'.