In a week’s time the festivities surrounding the TT will start in Assen. The major motorsport event is only a week later, but Assen is already heating up from the weekend of June 20.
The Sunday for the TT is new. That day, the Kop van de Vaart in Assen will be entirely dedicated to motor sports and music.
Jan Gerbrand Krol, director of the TT Festival: “As part of bringing the motorcycle back to the city center, we will organize a historic motorcycle exhibition on Sunday the 21st.” This will take place on the pontoons that will be located in part of the Vaart in Assen.
“We now have 35 old engines, some from before the war. There will be a stock exchange-like situation around that,” Krol says on Radio Drenthe.
The TT Festival Director is happy that something is happening on the Sunday before the TT again. “It will be a bit old-fashioned looking at engines, shuffling past engines. We expect a nice public event there on Sunday afternoon.”
Two years ago, a race was held on the Vaart on the Sunday before the TT. It was about the TT Moped Sprint. Things went horribly wrong when a motorcyclist fell and was seriously injured. The event was subsequently stopped.
Krol: “We don’t race anymore. However, there will be races on the Kop van de Vaart on Sunday. On the pontoons we will broadcast live the GP of the Czech Republic, which will be held a week before the TT.”
For Krol, this is his fourth TT as festival director. He is really looking forward to it again. “We had a very special year last year with 100 years of the TT and 50 years of the TT Festival. We are continuing the good things and when I see how much everyone is looking forward to it again, that makes me very positive.”
Last year the TT Festival brought together 295,000 people. Achieving that number this year seems difficult, according to Krol, because it is not an anniversary year and there are no activities on Wednesday evening this year.