Die 17 3/4 Stunden von Fischbach

At first glance it is a mad idea: mopeds, seventeen and three-quarter hours, a course of meadow and tarmac on the edge of a village. At second glance it is serious motorsport. The engines have 49 cc and are tuned to many times their standard output; the top speed is capped at 50 km/h all the same. The frame has to come from a moped – what hangs on it often comes from retired motocross machines.

The night is what makes it. The race starts on Saturday at 6:15 p.m., the sun goes down less than an hour later, and the 2.2 kilometres that were easy enough during the day in free practice and qualifying become something else under headlights. They keep going until the finish on Sunday at 12 noon. Whoever completes the most laps wins – the record stands at 366 laps, a good 800 kilometres on a moped.

At most 52 teams line up, each with up to five riders who may swap as often as they like, plus two mechanics in the pit. Things get busy there soon after the start, when the first engines give up. Timing is done by transponder, like in Formula 1; anyone not standing at the track follows the race in the speedhive app by MYLAPS.

The idea came in 2001 from the Fischbach youth club and the Guggenmusik band “Ohrwürmer”; the Musikverein Fischbach e. V. has been part of it since 2016. A village puts this race on, not an agency – and you can tell.