June 25-26, 2022
Each year the MotoGP roadracing world championship holds a round in the United States just 45 minutes from our home. I’ve always wanted to see a European round of the championship. In Europe, MotoGP is the motorsports equivalent of World Cup Soccer; it’s huge.
Assen, Netherlands is only about a half hour south of Groningen, and it just happened that the concert we had bought tickets for two years ago, that finally happened this year, was only three days before the Assen round of the MotoGP championship. So even though it meant more money, we bought tickets months ago to attend, and Heike bought a ticket and joined us.
On the way to the campground, we stopped for lunch in a small town. Nearby was a hair salon, with this ad on the side. Diana and I were trying to decide which look I should try: Moe from the 3 Stooges, or Flock of Seagulls. Seriously though, are there really that many people in this small town that want one of these?
We camped about 20 miles south of the Assen TT Circuit at Camping Goed Vertoef (“Good stay” in Dutch) to avoid the craziness of the MotoGP camping crowd. It seemed to work: we were the only motorcycles there, with the exception of a gaggle of Moto Guzzis that belonged to Frank, the owner of the campground. The rest of the guests seemed to be an older RV crowd, and probably regulars. All very friendly. In fact, while cooking dinner one night, another camper walked up and handed me four potatoes. So, hey, want fries with that?
Pitched up and relaxing at Camping Goed Vertoef.
Frank joined us for a drink and some riding tales during the evening. A great guy with a nice campsite, AND a rider. He offered to store our bikes inside, shared local beer with us, and gave us some tips on places to see in Netherlands. Couldn’t ask for more from a campground.
The ride to the race track was uneventful, at least until we got there. Then we joined the queue of other motorcycles (and bicycles) to get into the track. It was fairly orderly, considering the numbers. We parked under huge solar panel awnings over the motorcycle parking area, along with several thousand other motorcycles, and walked in and around the track. We had General Admission tickets (not reserved Grandstand seating), so we could pick anywhere on the grass hills surrounding the track. We watched each of three races from different spots.
The Moto3 race was as close as ever, with the top four or five riders gaining and losing three positions in one corner on a regular basis.
The MotoGP race was a bit less exciting, at least after Quartararo crashed out…twice.
The races were good, but as with just about every motorcycle race I’ve been to, you see much more of the race on television. At the track, you watch your one section, then watch the giant TVs for another minute and a half until the bikes come by again. The crowd experience and people watching are more of a reason to attend these races than to see the whole race.
One thing we noticed both at the concert a few days earlier and here at Assen: beer and other drinks are sold in clear plastic cups, by the thousands if not tens of thousands. There are no trash bins or places to dispose of the empty cups. At the end of the day, the ground is literally covered in plastic cups. It looks extremely trashy, in fact it looks horrible, but I suppose it’s easier to sort the recycling. However, since there are no trash bins, plastic cups aren’t the only thing that ends up on the ground; food and all sorts of other trash is everywhere also.
When the races were over and we began the long walk back around the track to our bikes, we noticed another “experience”: people lighting fires. They were piling up the plastic cups and other trash on the grass hillsides where we had just sat watching the races, and lighting it, causing plumes of black toxic smoke. I was reminded of my friend John’s comment about “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out”. This looked like “I went to a riot and a race broke out”. I don’t know if this is normal activity at other European races, but it kind of stained our experience. Okay, more accurately, it further stained our experience. I never really got over all the trash.
Still, I’d like to attend an Italian round of MotoGP at some point. Mugello, perhaps. It was clear at Assen that even a year after Valentino Rossi’s retirement, his merchandise was still out-selling all the other riders. Even without being present, there was a huge section of yellow-clad spectators waving yellow “46” flags, and a VR46 MegaStore in the vendor area that was several times larger than any other merchandise booth. His legend lives on.
This is the bicycle parking area at the Assen TT Circuit. It’s tiny compared to the motorcycle parking area, both in size and quantity.