The TT in Assen is more than a motorcycle race. It’s an annual gathering of tens of thousands of sports fans, squat teens and older men with beer bellies. It’s pitching your tent and then watching passers-by in a camping chair. It’s beer, barbecue and exhaust fumes. Roaring engines, smoking rubber. And Germans, lots and lots of Germans. It’s moped snaps. Drink more beer and then stumble more than walk. Or lie down in a tractor-trailer full of water to cool down, but then work in way too hot satay. It’s farm rock. hardcore. And more beer.
And that for three days.
The TT in Assen is the largest sporting event in the Netherlands and after two corona years, it’s a party as usual. From Friday, tens of thousands of motorcycle fans will pitch their tents around the circuit. Together they form TT campsites. Or rather small festival sites.
How different it was in 2020, when the corona pandemic broke out and the TT in Assen was canceled for the first time since 1946. Last year there was a MotoGP in Assen, but only for 11,500 spectators due to the corona restrictions. On Sunday there was room again for 105,000 people along the 4.5 kilometer long circuit during the most important motorcycle race in the Netherlands.
And it may not end there next year. Because in addition to the TT in Assen, people are talking out loud again to bring Formula 1 to Assen. Then, after Zandvoort, the Netherlands will receive a second Grand Prix, the GP of Assen.
Because the return of Formula 1 to the Netherlands, after 36 years, leaves us wanting more. At least, that’s what Jos Vaessen, chairman of The Dutch Grand Prix Foundation, thinks, who previously lobbied to bring Formula 1 to Assen instead of Zandvoort. Vaessen now proposes one race in the autumn, that of Zandvoort, and one race in the spring in Assen. Because for a few years now, countries have been allowed to organize more than one Grand Prix race per season.
“The success of Max Verstappen has given Formula 1 in our country an enormous boost and the Netherlands has the best supporters,” said Vaessen. “Why not Assen as an alternative?” But are the motorcycle fans in Assen really waiting for a Formula 1 race on their motorcycle circuit?
White male breasts
When, just after ten o’clock on Sunday morning, the crackling sounds of the first engines warming up on the circuit, the visitors sprint onto the dike. For miles they sit on the grass dikes almost on top of the drivers, only about ten meters away from the circuit. They broke out on the grass on folding chairs and blankets. Bring your own cool bag, fresh beer in hand. The morning sun burns on the white male breasts.
Mika Nijdam (9) is sitting in the shade under the stands with his mother Marjan Drenth. “This way we can look nicely at the screen and we are not in the sun,” says Drenth. Finally they were allowed to go back to the TT, after the two lean years. Mika’s father is on the track, in case of crashes he has to take the drivers and motorcycles off the track. They are not afraid of accidents. Drenth: “Grandpa was also on the track for years and nothing ever happened to him.”
The family from Assen breathes the TT. “From Monday, we have been cycling along the campsites with Mika every day, watching how the tents are set up and the visitors pour in,” says Drenth. They find it all fun.
But Drenth does not need to add another mega event. “We don’t like cars, we just like two wheels.” When Formula 1 comes to Assen, he stays at home. “Those are different people, motorsport is elitist. Motorsport is for everyone and everyone. Assen is TT.”
Mika nods hard, a yellow cap with number 46 on it shows off on his head. Everywhere you see the two numbers in fluorescent yellow. On caps, shirts, motorcycle jackets. It is the number of the Italian motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi, the crowd favorite in Assen. But this year Assen has to do without ll Dottore (the doctor), as Rossi’s nickname is. Because the 43-year-old Italian said goodbye to motorsport last year after 25 years. In ‘his’ Assen, where an entire grandstand will turn yellow with thousands of fans this year, he won ten times. But in his last race last year, he slipped after eight laps and it was done. That did not stop Assen from naming Rossi an honorary citizen of the city.
Nijdam thinks it is a shame that Rossi has stopped. “Hopefully he will come and say goodbye next year,” says his mother. Then he can see his hero one more time in real life. But today he cheers for two Dutchmen, who are slowly driving their way up in the second class, the Moto2. The Rotterdammer Bo Bendsneyder, who finished fifth on Sunday, and the only 16-year-old talent Zonta van den Goorbergh, who finished eighteenth on his debut.
A little further on, Drientje Spiegelaar (70) from Oostwold is sitting on a chair in front of the toilet. This is her 41st TT. “35 years as a ticket saleswoman and the last six years for the toilet.” She sees nothing of the games. “The toilets must be clean, that is also important.” It remains to be seen that Formula 1 will come to Assen. “As an event, it’s fun, but it’s a different people who come.” Spiegelaar should know, because she sits in front of the toilet every weekend, during all events, together with her sister. “Autovolk is – how should I say – a little bit aware.”
In the middle of the circuit is Gerrit Telkamp (68) from Emmen, steward at the entrance and exit where crashed motorcycle racers pass by. He has been doing this volunteer work for four years. He really wanted to be in this place. “Then you see some of the race, the drivers and crashed engines come by.” It’s a long day as a volunteer, from seven in the morning to seven at night. “You get five sandwiches, three bottles of drink and a piece of fruit from the organization. Fine, but next door is the VIP tent from which I sometimes get a tasty snack”, he says, beaming.
Top promotion for the North
Formula 1 to Assen? “I’ll be there,” says Telkamp. “The circuit is ready, the accessibility is better than Zandvoort and it is top promotion for the north of the Netherlands.” It doesn’t bother him that the car fans are different. “So what? I am coming.”
Suddenly the oohs and aahs wave from the stands behind Telkamp. “A crash,” he yells, pointing at the screen. He jumps and points back and forth with excitement. It is the umpteenth crash on Sunday during the MotoGP that was won by the Italian Francesco Bagnaia.
The full stands during the TT in Assen are back. Whether they will also turn orange next year, because racing driver Max Verstappen is driving laps in Drenthe, remains to be seen. For the time being, there are no serious signals pointing to the arrival of Formula 1 in Assen. In fact; chairman Arjan Bos of the TT circuit says the plans have been put on hold for the time being.
Immediately after the game it started to rain. Yelling boys slide down the dike, their faces through the mud. And then begins the hour-long exodus and perhaps the most beautiful tradition of the TT weekend. The residents of Drenthe fold out their camping chairs again and wave the tens of thousands of motorcyclists from the viaducts, the roadside or front yard.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 27, 2022