Chantal Hertrich, from WIMA France, kindly provided this report::
Czechoslovakia was a closed country within the Soviet bloc. Lida Abrahamova, Jawa motorcycle tester, who had participated in the Six Days, organised this rally in Petrovice where she lived, with the help of her husband, sons and friends.
It was not easy to bring in people from other countries, especially from the west. And the police came to the camp, and took our papers, so we could not move around as we wanted.
We went to Prague by bus as there were fears of motorcycle theft.
Despite the challenges, members from Austria (one), France (ten), Great Britain (three including Frances Popley), Switzerland (ten), East Germany (five) and West Germany (51) joined the two Czech members (Lida herself and Marie Zaluska). A total of 80 participants.
We were several from France, including Agnès Acker and her husband, another French woman, Agnès Walesa, who took care of WIMA after Agnès Acker, plus her husband. One French woman from Toulouse, Marie Christine, had ridden alone, with a brand new MZ 250 sidecar, from Toulouse. To ballast it, she had put a 50kg bag of cement!
A Parisian Yannick, and Mary Romeyer were there too. Mary participated in the WIMA rallies for many years. There were also Swiss women including Margrit Podesser (later Swiss captain) and Floh Petit was there too, along with many other Germans.
East Germans had come too, with old BMWs. They did not have good equipment to ride a motorbike, wore old boots… But they were there and could meet other people… from the west! And so were we. The discussions were interesting.
We had a gymkhana course which was not very easy, participated in a Fox Hunt (a tourist rally), went to visit Prague, and a castle… and maybe other things that I don’t remember. There were lots of gifts for the participants. Jawa and CZ sponsored the occasion. And the awards ceremony was a great evening. I won a beautiful plaque, very contemporary, with Petrovice written on it.
