(2003)

Only one track has held a GP every year since the Championship started up in 1949; it is the Circuit Van Drenthe, better known as Assen, and its longevity has imbued the place with a sense of history you can't find anywhere else.

The TT (not GP) is a place where you have to be really good to win and where the truly great seem to make their breakthrough. The track is the longest and fastest on the calendar and, fittingly, poses a unique challenge to racers. Add in crowds of well over 100,000 made up of most of the nationalities of Europe and you have an event unlike any other.

Despite several makeovers and drastic shortening of the original 17-mile loop, the current circuit has retained the Veenslang, the unique run down behind the paddock that gives the circuit much of its character. As befits a circuit based on old roads the tarmac has a crown in the centre, so in the high-speed run from the De Strubben horseshoe down to the right-hander of Stekkenwal racers cross the crown several times. The last set of modifications slowed down this formerly flat-out section but maintained the degree of difficulty that Assen has always had. The lap record stands at 111mph and is owned by Valentino Rossi, this despite a dead-stop S-bend chicane that ends the lap.

Fittingly, the old track's 109mph lap record dates from 1991 when Kevin Schwantz harried Wayne Rainey into a last-corner mistake to steal the win. That record stood right through to 2001and the last round of track modifications, making it the longest lived lap record in the sport, so fittingly it will stand forever as a fitting tribute to what could be done on the old, lightweight, full-fat petrol guzzling 500s.

Not everybody likes the place though. Mick Doohan always hated it. After all, it was the track on which he broke his leg and set off that saga of infection and operations that nearly cost him a limb. None of which stopped him winning there five times.

Numbers don't do the place justice though, neither the numbers on the timing screens or the numbers in the grandstands. Someone once called it 'the Cathedral' of racing and that is the best description. In the paddock, there are usually more men from head office than at any other event and thus it is the place where some serious rumours about next season start to surface, but the real Assen is to be found on the campsites, in the stands and in the town itself.

In typical Dutch fashion, the locals tolerate this annual invasion with good humour and plentiful supplies of the local lager. Its location in the north part of Holland makes Assen easy to get to for fans from Britain, Germany, the Benelux countries and Scandinavia. The result is a cosmopolitan and largely good-humoured gathering - although the locals have been known to get nasty with German fans.

Racing always takes place on Saturday, this dates back to the 1920s when organisers did not want to upset the religious sensibilities of the locals, so Friday night in town is party night. This is usually the first time that first-time-abroad British fans encounter the strange local habit of putting mayonnaise on chips (that's French fries). The campsites are enormous and boisterous. The first time I camped on one a large group of Germans arrived on bikes with no luggage. An hour later the VW van arrived with the tents, beer and a large sound-system belting out oompah-band music. I think they were the ones who dynamited the toilets.

The town's football stadium used to be opened up as a campsite, making a handy base for Friday night's partying. The TT used to be sponsored by a cigarette-paper company; it seemed appropriate. On race day, the crowd pack the massive grandstand along the start/finish straight and the earth embankments all round the track. Experienced Assen go-ers bring acres of plastic sheeting and the really adventurous bring in enough building materials to erect their own family-size grandstand. They also make a lot of noise. Back in 2000 Jurgen van der Goorbergh led the first lap of the second half of a restarted race after barging Sete Gibernau out of the way at the chicane. Tens of thousands of Dutch fans in the grandstands rose as one man. No less a rider than Randy Mamola said it was one of the great moments of the year, as Jurgen gave them a wave and then surrendered to the inevitable as his V-twin was swamped by the V4s but it was reminiscent of the days of Wil Hartog, Jack Middelburg and Boet van Dulmen. Hartog sparked national rejoicing when he became the first Dutchman to win the 500 race in 1978; Middelburg did it as a privateer in 1980.

More recently, when Bernie Ecclestone had his hands on the bikes, Assen prices rose by, I think, $10. As the sidecars came to the grid led by extravagantly bearded local hero and world champion Egbert Streur the massed ranks indulged in a little community singing which informed Mr Ecclestone where he could put his $10.

Assen has always done things differently. Nowadays they give the fans a full days racing with European Championship and BMW Boxer Cup races before the Gps, in the recent past the GP was the culmination of Speed Week, which included wall-to-wall racing. European races, top-level classic races and World F1 rounds all featured before the TT itself.

There was a move to get the Superbikes into Speed Week, but that foundered on the politics of the late '80s. Thankfully that means the World Superbikes go to Assen in August, so there are two chances to watch racing on this most subtle and demanding of tracks.

And to have a seriously good time while you're doing it.