At the end of 2002, the Internet was still in its very first years. This young medium aroused my curiosity every day by the immense range of possibilities it could offer.
Randomly browsing the web, I once typed ‘Jacky Ickx’ to see what the network offered on the one who, since my earliest childhood, has been my idol. Instantly the results were displayed. In first position, appeared a site with a promising name: “Tribute to Jacky Ickx” emerges. The opening of this site provoked an immense surprise and a real happiness as its editorial wealth (original articles, full ranking) and iconographic (more than 35,000 photos) were great.
Amazed by the quality of this site, put online only a few weeks earlier, I decided to get in touch with its creator, Julien Garnier, in order to congratulate him of his phenomenal work and proposed to provide him with some archives and personal photos intended to complete ‘Tribute to Jacky Ickx’.
Many others than me were marked by the quality of this site, including a certain…. Jacky Ickx! The fabulous work accomplished by Julien Garnier has earned him the friendship and recognition of Jacky himself, who sweetened this site to make it his official site!
After a few collaborations on my part at “Tribute to Jacky Ickx”, Julien and I have become, over time, close friends who always enjoyed meeting every time I traveled to Belgium.
Advancing in age, aware of the fragility of existence and anxious to ensure the sustainability of his work, Julien asked me, during 2019, if I would agree to take over the administration of ‘Tribute to Jacky Ickx’ on the day he would die. Unable to imagine that this extraordinary site could disappear at the same time as its creator, I had responded positively.
Unfortunately, a few months later, in December 2020, Julien left this world leaving me thus facing the role of curator of ‘Tribute to Jacky Ickx’ that I had committed myself to taking on. However, due to a particularly time-consuming professional activity, I had to resolve to ensure my mission only at the bare minimum, that is to maintain the site online, make it accessible to everyone… but without being able to perform updates and animate it.
The time for my professional retreat having struck, I now have the time and desire to devote myself as it should be to ‘Tribute to Jacky Ickx’.
Relaunching the site after these 5 years of absence of work on it was a real challenge. The existing site, presenting security flaws, gaps in SEO etc… , an update was necessary. But Julien was a computer programmer… which I am not!!! He himself had developed and customized all the lines of code on his site. Therefore, it is impossible for me to update the existing site due to a lack of skills.
Only one solution remained: start from scratch and build a completely new website (from WordPress) to then integrate the elements of the original site. So that’s the solution I chose. The task, accomplished by self-taught and without any use of the AI, was colossal but it has the advantage of offering a site optimized in terms of graphics, referencing, and security.
Here is the 2026 version of ‘Tribute to Jacky Ickx. This version is new in form but remains identical in substance. Thus, you will find the content that made the richness and diversity of the original site, the preservation of the immense work accomplished by Julien Garnier being my priority. However, given the number of documents that make up ‘Tribute to Jacky Ickx’ and the amount of work it represents to integrate them into the 2026 version, I have decided to put this one online right now… but with, for now, only a part of the documents from the original site. I will gradually integrate the missing elements, at my own pace, which will also present the interest of bringing a regular life to the site.
Eventually, I will add photos taken in recent years and never published before on ‘Tribute to Jacky Ickx’. New original sections will also be added to the site in some time…
I hope you will like this new version of ‘Tribute to Jacky Ickx’. To fully enjoy it, I encourage you to browse it on a computer rather than a tablet or smartphone.
Do not hesitate to let me know your feedback and any suggestions. If you have photos, texts, information that could enrich this site, do not hesitate to contact me…
It’s up to you now to go through it. I dedicate this 2026 version to Julien Garnier, who did the essential work and without whom none of this would exist….
Dominique DRENEAU
February 2026