Open Dutch Championship 2011

Last weekend the Open Dutch Championship 2011 was held on the TT Circuit. On a very sunny Saturday they practised and qualified, determining the starting grids on Sunday. Sunday started a lot gloomier though, in the morning -while warming up- it was simply poring. So far I hadn’t attended any of it; my plan was to go and see the races on Sunday afternoon, but with weather like that I was having second thoughts.

Luckily the weather cleared up in the afternoon and in a chilly but sunny afternoon I headed to the track. Upon arrival the KTM races had just started. I took the opportunity to check my settings, but found the races not to be very interesting. It looked slow and there was little or no excitement at all. After that race I started my usual walk around the track and found myself between Duikersloot and Mandeveen when the International Classic Grand Prix started, far more interesting bikes to see and it looked more interesting on the track to. I have no idea who won, but the race was nice to look at. Slowly made my way to the location known as ‘De Bult’

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My plan was to start the next race shooting photos at ‘De Bult’, however while waiting for the race to begin, I started to have some second thoughts and walked a bit further so that at the beginning, while the sidecar bikes were still close together, I’d be able to shoot a few photos of two or three bikes coming out of (or going into) the Stekkenwal corner. From there I went back to ‘De Bult’  to shoot a few bikes making that turn and then moved onwards to just around the Stekkenwal turn.

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For the Dutch Supersport race I spent most of my time at the Ruskenhoek and Veenslang and the Dutch Superbike was shot starting n De Strubben, walking past Ossebroeken and ending in Madijk.The great thing about the Dutch Superbike and Supersport races is that there’s a very rich field of competitors. Lots of bikes on the track and a lot of head-to-head fighting to get further to the top of the field. As great as the MotoGP might be, nothing beats a well filled track to make a race more exciting.

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At that point I had nearly finished my walk around the track. In the end there was yet another KTM race, where I took a few photos, but again the race just didn’t do anything to me. Having spent the whole afternoon at the track, and carrying a backpack full of camera gear, I decided I’d had enough and went home. Had a fantastic afternoon with decent weather and some fun races.

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