Wheels & Wake, Nethen, D
Loads of Wheels, not so much Waves.
It’s not quite the world’s beard balm-and-surfboard mount-using hipster crowd hotspot by the shining sea, but maybe that’s the reason why here, not far from the "Biarritz of the North", Bremen, at "Wheels & Wake" in Nethen, the vibes are way different. It’s all there: the wheels, the beach and the waves. With a twist.
It’s all about wheels at the Friday night flat track event on MSC Moorwinkelsdamm’s own dirt track. Fierce eliminations are happening in the afternoon. The weather is nordic and slightly moist, but the crowd of riders is going all out, lots of spectators, lots of runs. Racing fun until the floodlight came on.
On Saturday it’s the beach: No wonder,
’cos this now is serious stuff. The racing action revolves around the 'Nethen 1/32 Mile of Sandy Beach Motorcycle Racing World Championship', no less. An all out drag race over incredible 50,29 meters. In one go! Not much time (and distance) to make many mistakes. If you can’t bear the nerve-wrecking tribulations of watching the racing no more, or if you and your not-quite-fast-enough bike were already eliminated, you can try to regain some sort of mental equilibrium on the vast, welcoming beach.
Apart from the usual offerings
of drink and sustenance, there’s a very extensive menu of motorbikes of most diverse brands and concepts to take in: enduro bikes, flat trackers, choppers, MV Agustas, Yamahas, Hondas, BMWs and, surprise!: Harleys - e.g. the Wrecking Crew JD board tracker, which is easy to find, ’cos we have parked it by our big yellow Chevy PanAm Oils truck. Talking about well oiled: the vibes were as smooth as PanAm’s 20W-50, all weekend long. Not least thanks to the perfect organisation.
Oh, the waves. Yeah, these were kinda
do it yourself, with a little help from the wakeboard lift around the lake. "Wheels & Wake", get it?
We had a cool weekend with some cool people, and, who knows, maybe next year we bring one of our W&W murdersickles to get in on the action.
