The resurgence of flat track racing around the world is no surprise; it’s fast, dangerous, fun and great for spectators to watch. Christine Gabler and Marc Holstein have been over in Japan for the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show but also travelled out to watch the ‘Have Fun Flat Track’ event – which as the name suggests, is a bunch of riders who just want to have fun and go left on inappropriate bikes. We thought we’d let Marc and Christine take us through the event. The wonderful photos and words are theirs:

Waking up super early to catch train all the way out to Kawagoe proved to be quite a challenge in the busy city of Tokyo. We were on our way to the ‘Have Fun Flat Track’ party event which was being held a day after the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show. The practice was to be held on Monday but it rained heavily all day. Tuesday looked amazing so me made our way out to the track, riding one and a half hours through Tokyo and another 30 minutes by taxi. We arrived on site at around noon which seemed like a perfect time as the track has just dried off.

The philosophy about the event is that everybody can come to this event and enjoy a day of flat track racing, which whatever bike he owns. Even choppers were allowed to participate and it was amazing to see everybody enjoying themselves. The “have fun” crew created a class which seemed quite interesting that used small sized bikes mostly based on the Honda Dax, proving that not a lot of budget is needed to enjoy flat track racing. The bikes were customised in the incredible creative ways.

The event was held in typical Japanese hospitality, with friendly people all around and not so many crazy rules like in some other events that we have seen. What personally impressed us the most, was the guys that took their original Vintage Harley and Indians to the track and racing with them. Reflecting on it the event was amazing and we will surely return again next year.