July 11, 1925. With thunderous violence, 27 drivers drive away from the center of Rolde for the first Tourist Trophy. Ten laps they ride a circuit between Rolde, Borger and Schoonloo on a 28.4 kilometer long. The inhabitants of the three villages have never seen such a spectacle. “But it fits in with the image of the times,” says Vincent Tassenaar, teacher of Economic-Social History at the University of Groningen (RUG).
Motorsport is still in its infancy in the Netherlands in 1925. In the decades before, reliability rides will be held and experiments are being conducted with speed races on horse renes. But a road race on the public road was not possible until 1925. The law did not allow it. But that changes with the adjustment of the new motorcycle and bicycle law. The men of Assen see a chance and organize the first TT.
“At that time you see the rise of motorized traffic, also in Drenthe,” says Tassenaar. “At the same time, the street roads have been on the rise since the 19th century, weighs that connect the large places with each other. First, those are macadam roads, streets that are paved with pieces of stone from shattered boulders. Then those brown stones come.”
But the course between Rolde, Borger and Schoonloo is by no means a tight race track. JT Clewitz, one of the men of Assen, recalls this in 1955 in conversation with De Telegraaf. According to him it was a bumpy street of Keien, a gravel road and a sandy path. On that sandy path it was strictly forbidden to catch up.
Fuel was refueled from a barrel hung in a tree, the pit consisted of two dilapidated sheds. The Amsterdam driver FHJ Jansen appears at the start in a blouse, with sandwiches, hard -boiled eggs and chocolate bars underneath. Along the way he stops a few times, eats something and ‘waved friendly against the spectators’.
Top sport is clearly not yet the case and in the case of Jansen it is better to speak of a tour. But sport has been on the rise since the end of the 19th century. Horse and cycling courts are being constructed and especially the middle class and higher classes in society are going to do sports. “The leisure culture fits in with that time. People get more time, there is room to relax. Also in Drenthe. Mass activities are on the rise. For example, you also see that the first zoos are being constructed,” says Tassenaar.
But a racing match for motorbikes on a deposited public road is something new. It appears that the event is something special. It is bustling along the course the day before the competition, signed up the Provincial Drentsche and Asser Courant in 1925. “Time and again this early this, then again a motorcyclist the attention and then people looked at each other and said,” That’s one for tomorrow. “
It ensures that the stands in Rolde and Borger are packed during the racing day. There is a hedge of spectators around the Brink, “more people than on Harst-Roldermarkt.” Eventually they see Piet van Wijngaarden (500cc), Hajo Bieze (350cc) and Arie Wuring (250cc) win.
After the TT, Provinciale Drentsche and Asser Courant concludes that the match ‘Beautiful was successful’. This could just arouse the interest in motorsport in the north. “The basis has been laid for annual road races.”