Ingeborg wrote this for Das Motorrad.
Our girls at the Nürburgring “As long as we have fun!”
This was the motto of the WIMA meeting of motorcycle- riding ladies from all over Europe in 1959, which took place for the first time at the Nürburgring in Germany at the end of September. This time there were twelve girls who met for a happy weekend. Jopy Deijs van Dinter from Holland had already come a few days earlier to get things ready and to prepare the small competitions that were to be held.
Saturday passed with training rides around the ring, and it was agreed to start the speed competition at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning. When I looked out of the window the next morning, there was thick fog, and we all know what that means at the Nürburgring. But still, it was on, in the hope that the fog would rise. Three laps would be ridden and the best time would be evaluated. It started with a one-minute interval. Jopy was the first to start, who had sold her Velocette Venom because it was too heavy for her to ride in the city. She now tried a Jawa 350cc. Jopy drives very cleanly without risking anything, unlike her sister Jenny, who always laughs, has jokes up her sleeve, and squats on her machine like a little leprechaun. Jenny drives a Jawa 250cc, but had borrowed a 350cc Jawa for this competition, with which she drove an 86 kph lap. Alas, she had bad luck. While the WIMA girls were doing their laps, a Wiesbaden car club was on the track at the same time plus some daredevil Vespa riders. When Jenny came around a bend, one of these Vespas was trudging around like a bowling ball in the middle of the track. The driver just disappeared into the hedge. Jenny slammed on the brakes; the track was damp from the foggy rain, and she slipped and crashed a few metres off the track. Now she arrived at the start crying, because the borrowed machine had received several, albeit insignificant, scratches and the Vespa fellow had spoiled her laptime. The owner of the borrowed Jawa comforted her so nicely and warmly, that after 10 minutes everything was forgotten.
The youngest member of the WIMA family came with a brand new Hercules K101. The machine had less than 2500 km under its belt, but Gisela Battis from Cologne coped very well. Gisela is 19 years old and has been riding on a Maico as a pillion, later on a R26 for two years. One day fate wanted the R26 to disappear on the horizon, and Gisela now had to go for walks with her mother, with whom she lives alone. That wasn’t quite the right thing to do. Motorcycling was so nice! And now Mum and Gisela decided that she had to come up with her own machine. She quickly got the driver’s licence, and then got a machine. Gisela is a secretary in an office and finished her apprenticeship not so long ago; she didn’t have much money, so went to the bank. Yes, she can get the money, but mum has to sign. But at the bank they read ‘for motorcycle purchase’, and they backtrack. Girls and motorcycles! (I can just see the furrowed brows of the Philistines there.) She should rather provide for a dowry! What now? Give up on the dream? No, Mum and Gisela scraped all the money together, the deposit was there – and Gisela got her K101. And now Gisela can go wherever she wants. Gisela rides with her motorcycle, mum comes by train – and then they both camp. I think that’s a very touching story, to have such an understanding mum for a girl’s hobby – it must be very rare.
Let me tell you about each of the 12 WIMA meeting participants:
Little Yvonne Parrot from England, who won the Motorrad cup for the longest journey, is only 19 years old. She is a member of another WIMA group, the London Ladies Motorcycle Club, who have about 60 members in the London metropolitan area alone. Yvonne is from West Livingston and owns a 200cc Tiger Cub where she burned her clutch at the rally she was at the previous Sunday. Yvonne had been terribly sad that she could not go to Europe, but her brother had taken pity on her and lent her his AJS. I have to say, that she did not handle it as if she was riding it for the first time. When I asked what her parents said about her sport, she said, “Oh, my mother is a bit nervous when I ride, but since she knows that I like to do it and that I am careful, she says nothing.”
Madame Yvette Gadras from France came from very far, namely from the French Atlantic coast at La Rochelle, together with her husband. She rides an R69 solo. She came repeatedly to me and stroked first my machine and then her fuel sign and said ‘machine good’. Apart from that, we could not understand each other. But the shared enthusiasm for our machines was international. You might say, that Yvette actually deserved the trophy for the longest journey, but we thought it was only fair to award it to Yvonne from England, because she came all alone, while Yvette took turns riding with her husband.
Ellen Wetzig (later Pfeiffer) from Frankfurt is not a complete stranger to us, because she has been riding for a long time and took part in many competitions. There is not much to say about Ellen; I don’t think she thinks much of ‘chatting’, but rather prefers to ride one more lap on the ring. Unfortunately, she had some bad luck during training on Saturday, skidded slightly and had to walk around with a plaster on her nose as a punishment. Jopy was always a bit afraid for her and was happy when she arrived safely back at the start and finish. Ellen rode with her already somewhat older Horex Resident 350 at a quite remarkable laptime of almost 84 km/h.
Oh yes, and then we have Ilse Altrath with her KS601 and her sidecar partner Christa. Ilse is supposed to know how to ride, because she is the wife of Hans Altrath, who is well known in his own right as a KS specialist in the Ruhr area.
Wily Parson from near Amsterdam was almost the last to ride around the beautiful Eifel course. She limped terribly, because on her trip to the Nürburgring she had suffered something similar to a torn ligament on her foot. “But I didn’t want to let it to spoil the fun, even if it hurts!” she said, when she could hardly follow the fox on foot during the Fox Hunt (Editor’s note: off-road rally).
Our readers all know Anke-Eve Goldmann by now, who drives a great R69 on which she can only ride by almost lying down on the giant tank. She is a teacher by profession – I had imagined a lady with a pince-nez on her nose, but such a character would hardly have ridden the Nürburgring in 15 minutes 13 seconds, which is an average of almost 90 km/h.
In the meantime, the WIMA girls could hardly be found among the many motorcyclists who were suddenly there. Who were we missing? These were the active off-road riders we all know so well. For example, Olga Hagena, Helga Klima or Helga Geissler from Augsburg, who was quite active just a year ago. We were all the more pleased that our 62-year-old Ilse Thouret, who was the only woman to win a bronze medal at the International Six Days Trial before the war, did not miss the opportunity to call on us at the Nürburgring.
We have found that all prejudices, all problems, all worries and sorrows become trifles when such casual cheerfulness and such uncomplicated joy in a common hobby ensures that borders and contrary world views disappear. Although we didn’t all understand each other linguistically, we looked at each other, laughed heartily and still spoke the same language. Now I’m asking those of you who are racking your brains over seemingly unsolvable problems in society, politics and life: Don’t you want to take us as a good example?
