Licks Cycles: Normandy Seaside Race 2023

Seaside racing is among the oldest disciplines in all of motorsports. The USA is usually cited as one of many early locales the place automobiles and bikes took to the sand, with the Daytona Seaside and Highway Course opening for pace trials all the best way again in 1902.

Nevertheless, seashores all around the world turned well-known for internet hosting varied sorts of racing…and the apply is one the rise as soon as once more.

“Occasions passed off in France at La Baule in 1919, in Denmark on the island of Romo. For greater than a century it has existed all around the world. In Pendine, England, it’s a part of the native tradition. With The Race of Gents (TROG), classic lovers have revived this apply, on the east coast, in Wildwood, or in California, in Pismo in 2016.” -Normandy Seaside Race

A number of years in the past, three mates from the Paris suburbs — Thomas Hervé, Jean-Marc Lazzari, and Marc Félix — traveled to the States to take part in The Race of Gents (TROG), and returned residence with a dream.

“They quickly imagined themselves having the identical expertise on a French seashore… and furthermore in Normandy, on seashores which have marked historical past.”

The results of their ardour, tenacity, and exhausting work is the annual Normandy Attain Race, which takes place on none aside from Sword Seaside, one of many 5 major touchdown seashores of Operation Overlord — the Allied invasion of German-occupied France on June 6, 1944.

Stretching 5 miles from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, Sword ended up being the easternmost touchdown zone of the invasion. British forces from the third Infantry, in addition to hooked up Royal Marine and Free French Commando parts, have been tasked with assaulting the seashore and continuing inland towards the town of Caen.

As we speak, Normandy Seaside Race is open solely to pre-1947 automobiles and bikes, with 1/8-mile (200m) drag races on the seashore. The 2023 NBR passed off from September 22-24, 2023, and we despatched our buddy and photographer Roberto Garagarza (@roga______) to cowl the occasion.