Anke-Eve Goldmann wrote this report for Das Motorrad: It was the fifth since 1958 – last year none took place. By the way, this is why serious motorcycling will never be a really significant occupation for a woman: most girls had just had babies last year or were expecting…
Again, it was the private boarding house of the indomitable Han Clavan, which was the week’s headquarters: fifty metres from the beautiful beach of Scheveningen in Holland. For eight evenings, the old house echoed with the exuberant chatter of the motorcycle-riding women’s rooms. A whole bunch of new faces have appeared at WIMA, the one prettier than the other. But the WIMA week was won by a veteran (gee, Ellen, you won’t be resenting me for this, will you?), who had already attended in 1958 as Miss Wetzig and now arrived here as Mrs Pfeiffer, and mother of two hulking sons. The famous Horex Resident of before had given way to a venerable Norton Dominator 500. Three victories in the individual competitions were Ellen’s to snatch: a long-distance award gaining her 7560 points for 1350 kilometres, the slalom in Zandvoort and the orientation ride.
Second place in the overall standings went to a ‘newcomer’: Birgit Ericsson from Sweden. A very quiet girl. She rode 1363 km from a corner somewhere west of Stockholm to Holland. At home, she lives alone as a technical draughtswoman and additionally goes to an engineering school. To get to Holland, she sold her R51/3, exchanged it for an old Ardie 350 and financed her trip with the surplus. The tools she brought with her would have been enough to disassemble and reassemble the Ardie into all the individual parts in the middle of Lapland. And with this Ardie, whose pistons emitted highly suspicious noises, Birgit rode the best time in Zandvoort in the speed test: amongst others a lap of 2:38.9 = 94.97 km/h.
And there was another discovery: Renée Fierant, a hairdresser from Zaltbommel in Holland, who had contested the competitions with a BSA 350, appeared for the off-road ride on Friday with a motocross Matchless. With this machine gun, she dredged through the half-metre-deep sand of the dunes of Nordwijkerhout, so that we all lost sight and sound of her. This always well-groomed girl, who dresses with taste and flair, seems to have no nerves at all. Here is a great off- road talent on the rise, with ambitions for motocross. I think only the French Claire Blaise and the Englishwoman Jill Savage have done something similar so far. Bravely Ellen, Birgit and Jo ground through the sand, but it didn’t help.
Renée on her thunderbox made everyone else look like amateurs. Next year we’ll be expecting them all again: the mischievous Renate from Dinslaken; the indestructible Dorothea on her KS which behaves like a toy motorbike in her hands; the always laughing Norah from England; and certainly again a few new faces. And by then, Captain Jopy, the good spirit of WIMA, will surely have hatched some more surprises…
