Beautiful weather greeted the IHRO Continental Circus as it paid its first visit to Denmark for the International Classic TT at Ring Djursland near Arhus on the west coast of the country.

The circuit is quite small at 1.425kms long but it is a demanding and technical track with a surprising amount of height variation over its length and a number of banked corners which all added up to a good fun circuit where rider ability was of a great an importance as machine speed.

This was the first ever classic only meeting in Denmark and the organisation of the Vagn Jensen House of Triumph sponsored event was excellent and extremely friendly and the circuit facilities were first class.

There were separate races for both 250/350 cc classes and the 500cc class although the 250/350 class was a bit light on entries. Two sessions of practice for each class were held on Saturday morning and in the 350 class it was Mike Edwards on Vagn Jensen’s Manx who quickly established his position at the head of the grid with a sub minute lap, some 2 seconds ahead of Mike Cooper on Tony Dunnell’s Manx, the only other rider to break the minute barrier in the sessions. Cooper set his time in the first session before falling without injury at the start of the second session. Vagn Jensen was third and Martin Hudson fourth at the end of the sessions. Torben-Stig Nielsen was fastest 250 on his Ducati.

The 500 sessions also demonstrated Edwards’s ability with a leading time 1.6 seconds ahead of Gary Thwaites who was enjoying a guest ride on Brian Camp’s Manx, Jensen was again in third place with Lars Sandberg on his G50 and Torben-Stig Nielsen on his G50 in very close attendance.

The first race was the 250 / 350 class on Saturday afternoon and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Edwards who was the victor by a clear 2.2 seconds from Cooper with Jensen in Third, Hudson came fourth ahead of Andy Molnar who recovered from a slow start to finish fifth. The race was shortened to 8 laps after a long delay caused by an accident in the preceding superparade which meant that the 500 race did not get run until Sunday morning. Noise restrictions meant that the circuit had to be quiet by 1600 hours, giving an unusually long evening for social and prize giving activities. Nielsen was the 250 class winner.

The 500cc race on Sunday morning was an Edwards benefit, wanting to get a win under his belt, he dominated the race winning by over 13 seconds at the end of the 8 laps from second place Nielsen who inherited the place when Sandberg fell without injury on lap 6. Jensen came third ahead of Jarno Jonker on his Becks BMW having recovered from his practice spill on cold tyres. The major battles of the race were all Dutch affairs with Boy Beck on his IHRO debut ride just getting the better of Jan Brouwer for seventh place and between Hans Buskermolen on his Seeley Goldstar who beat similarly mounted Jose Van Meurs who started form the pitlane by a mere 0.07 second to claim sixteenth place.

The second 250 / 350 race was very different to Saturday’s event when both Edwards and Cooper went out on the first lap, Cooper fell on the second corner and a scant few metres later Edwards retired with mechanical trouble allowing his sponsor Jensen to gain his first IHRO race victory but not after a terrific battle with both Colin Dally and Martin Hudson for second and third respectively. Nielsen was again the 250 class victor.

The second 500 race was halted when Gary Thwaites fell off at the first hairpin at the start of his second lap when he ran out of brakes after trying to make up for a poor start, Gary was taken away to the medical centre but was quickly released but was not looking forward to his return flight to the UK that evening as his knee swelled up.

The restart saw Edwards fighting with Nielsen for the lead which he took on lap 7, behind him was an all Nordic battle with Danes Nielsen and Jensen holding off Swede Sandberg and Finn Osmo Partti just ahead of Jonker. This time Jose Van Meurs managed to beat Buskermolen to even the honours and Bernard Bakker, Jan-Frank’s father had a good race with Ben Mensink both being caught at end of the race by Brouwer who recovered from a minor startline spill to finish fourteenth.

We wish the club good luck in securing a date at the circuit for next year, which is difficult as there are only 4 weekends per year allowed for racing due to noxious neighbours. The meeting was enjoyed by all the riders and by the large crowd of spectators and we look forward to returning next year.

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