The always pleasant visit from Bergen has again arrived the paddock, and ACM is looking forward to another fast-paced week, but now together with gang from Baneviken. Several from the Bergen crew have taken part in the national championship and are starting their second holiday week up north. This year there will be a license course, instruction, a lot of practice and races, but as always under the Bergen motto: It must be fun!
Some of the NM athletes left the arena during the Sunday, but not a few stayed for another week of motorcycling. From all over the country, new participants have flocked during the Sunday for their annual highlight, what is described as motorsport's answer to the Bergen International Festivals.
For eighteen years, two guys from Bergen, Frank Tøsdal and Arne Viken, have been invited friends for speed parties under safe conditions, and along the way the staff has been both expanded and strengthened. Sons and daughters have taken on much of the administrative work, because the two founders think it's more fun to be out on the track or in the pit boxes.
- After so many years, we know that the best way to drive fast is to have fun. Lap times go down when you sit on the bike with your shoulders down and have few expectations, Frank Tøsdal said in a newspaper interview last summer, and the interest in participating is the same this year. The participants come from all over the country.
New this year is a license course for new athletes in road racing. ACM's course instructor, Geir Steinbakk, is responsible for introducing laws and regulations, while much of the instruction is carried out by Baneviken's experienced instructors.
- In the first few years there were more pranks and fun, but then we realized that many people became better motorcyclists from riding with us. So along the way, we probably got a heavier footing on instruction and guidance, Tøsdal said last year.
Arne Viken, who is a driving instructor on a day-to-day basis, keeps some of the pranks under control. He has previously said that the background for the first trip to Mo i Rana in 2004 was a series of bad motorcycle accidents in and around Bergen. In the first years, the most important thing was to be able to drive fast in safe conditions, but that the concept has received more guidance and instruction along the way.
To give the new athletes some extra experience to take home with them, ACM will run a couple of club races during the week.