The writer apologises for any omited, important occurences, leading figures or men and women dedicated to the sport and kindly asks readers to submit any knowledge which might be helpful in closing such information gaps.

It all began in 1972 when Erhard Pajewski (the local Honda dealer in those days) convinced a couple of wild motor bike riders to practice the sport in an organised fashion. No sooner said than done, the first MX-track was built in Brakwater behind the old Ster-Autokino, under the leadership of Erhard. Every weekend the guys met for racing. The pioneers of this sport in Namibia were Erhard Pajewski, Heini Soltau, Helmut Braun, Victor Kulikowski, Schorsch Bierbrauer, Achim von Flotow, Wulf Pinsenschaum and Fritz Flachberger.

But as soon as verything and everyone was settled in, the eviction order came. The noise of the four-stroke engines disturbed and agitated the animals on the Delfs farm. However the problem was quickly solved as Heini Soltau built a MX-Track in Gobabis at the same time. Now the Windhoeker’s met monthly for racing in Gobabis.

The stars of the early 1970’s were Wilfried Diener, Willi Salpeter, Benno Schmidt, Thorsten Berger, and the quickest man in Namibia at that time: Peter Heckmair. He earned this attribute not because of his racing style on the track, but because of a record ride from Swakopmund to Windhoek which he completed in 1 hour and 50 minutes on his famous Honda-Goldwing.

The highlight of this era was the participation of the Suidwester’s at an international race in Siringa Spa (South Africa) in 1974. Results are not known anymore but it is said that the guys from the so called “fifth province” were quite remarkable.

What followed were regular “club championship races” with the teams from Gobabis and Tsumeb. The spectators showed substantial interest at that time and the entrance fees covered the running expenses.

It must have been around 1978 when the sport went into hibernation and activities resumed only when Schorsch Bierbrauer came back from Germany in 1979. Schorsch was the first Namibian who dared going to Germany, which was the heartland of European Moto Cross sport at the time. His talent was rewarded with a 13th place in the German Championships in 1978. At the same time Victor Kulikowski returned from Johannesburg, who had competed in races for Husquarna. These two were now the stars of their time. Concurrently, Gerd Dresselhaus made a suitable piece of land available on his farm Hoffnung and the leading men in terms of organisation and also spirited riding were Schorsch and Victor!

Successful up-and-coming talents were Kai Rubow, Andreas Rechter, Gerd Dresselhaus, as well as the Pajewski-offspring Nicki and Andi. By the end of 1982 they were joined by great talents like Mike de Kock, who passed away in mai this year, Ronnie Adams (sen.), Gino Rossi, as well as Doolie Engels and Fakkie Gous. The highlight of this period was an invitation to a race against the South African team which included their star Tony Riddel.

Then, Namibia’s motor bike legend, the unfortunately prematurely deceased Erhard Pajewski, decided to relocate his firm from Windhoek to Capetown, which left such a void that the club practically collapsed like a house of cards.

Fortunately Schorsch Bierbrauer saw a reason to act and together with “Johnny-on-the-spot” Peter Heckmair, they designed a track on Peter’s parents farm Elisenheim, behind the van Eck power station. The track was built with the help of Heckmair’s earthmoving equipment.

Instantaneously the “stars” showed up again and organised racing began. Apart from the above-mentioned riders, other up-and-coming talents found their way to MX-sport. Eckhard Waldschmidt had his first great appearances, Günter Hein wore the colours of his home-town Swakopmund, where racing took place since 1978 on the sand track between Walvisbay and Swakopmund. The 80cc class was dominated by the youngsters Ingo Waldschmidt, Rainer Becker and the two Pajewski-brothers Andi and Nicki. The Becker-family then even built a very popular track in Gobabis in 1981. Here in the religious little town in the east, the highlight of Namibia’s MX-history up to that point took place: Helga de Kock, together with the Becker-family achieved an organisational master-stroke. In January of 1983 a Dakota airplane landed with 40 South African riders on board. Among those were well-known riders such as Ryan Hunt, Rob Herring, Greg Albertyn who won 3 world championship titles, and Collin Dugmore who races in Germany since 1987, is married to a German woman and became German Moto Cross Champion in 1992 and International German Champion in 2001 and he was a regular GP contender with outstanding results. On that day best Moto Cross sport was presented on southwest African soil.

Until 1984 the organisation in Windhoek rested on the shoulders of the Swanepoel family, whose son Michael was about to develop into a star of his time. The top riders until 1984 were Schorsch Bierbrauer, Doolie Engels and Gino Rossi. From 1985 onwards the administrative side of the sport lay in the hands of the de Kock family (it was obviously a period of family dinasties) and those who knew Helga and Mike, knew that they were getting on a roll. The new destination was the permanent racing track “Tony Rust”. The terrain was terrific and the infrastructure good, only the track itself wore out the tyres in no time. Now the time was ripe for Mike Swanepoel. Uwe Trümper and Eckhard Waldschmidt to show their mettle.

In 1988 another change in the commitee took place. This time Eckhard Waldschmidt took over responsibility, supported by Udo Kiesewetter. Ingo Waldschmidt had his first successes in Windhoek, while Rainer Becker won his first 5 important races in South Africa. While a new summit had been reached in terms of sport, in-house problems were not exactly constructive for the continued existence of the WMCC. Nobody wanted the “hot chair”, to assume responsibility, and again the sport fell by the wayside.