The Great Race at Hovland horse race track in Larvik

1922 

During the first years after Norsk Motorcycle Klub (Norwegian Motorcycle Club) was founded in 1916 the sport was focusing on endurance and reliability runs, such as Trondhjemsridtet - a four day event from our capitol Christiania (Oslo) to Trondhjem and back.

Those endurance runs was not about speed but about getting "there and back", all routes had preplanned km pr hour speed and when a rider was estimated to arrive at the various intermediate milestones along the way. To fast - points added, to slow - points added. In the early 20ìes the need for speed became more important. Norway had no racing tracks, nor will among our government in having such. The only way to obtain speed was either use the local horse track or on ice during winter. The event covered in the above article is from the very first track event held by the Norsk Motorcycle club. This at Hovlandsbanen in Larvik, a then quite new track with slight banking trough the curves. Macke Nicolaysen rode his Reading Standard machine at just above 100kmh during this event, a speed that was way above the road speed limits in Norway at the time, those where in average 35kmh when out of town and 15kmh as soon as city limit was reached.