There is a strong gale blowing from the northwest, accompanied by squally showers, and the wind is picking up the sand and stinging our faces. It’s just the weather for a day on the beach. By 5:00am the Rømø Motor Festival 2026 crews are down on Lakolk Beach on the Danish island of Rømø, laying out the two 1/8th-mile lanes on the sand. This Saturday dawn in August makes a feeble attempt to break as the prime trackside parking spaces, which are reserved for pre-1958 cruisers, customs and hot rods, quickly fill up.
Such is the superb working relationship between the two organisers, Thomas Toft Bredahl and Carsten Bech, along with the local police and the Danish Army, that what looked like half the motorhomes in Northern Europe were allowed onto the beach last night. A brilliant new plan, resulting in no more traffic jams from the mainland town of Skærbæk to the beach come race day.
The action starts at 10:00am, with drivers choosing who they want to compete against, very much early drag-race style. Each run commences with the ‘starter girl’ dropping the flag in a flurry of wild hair, flailing arms and feet leaping almost a meter off the sand. The more confident racers take pot luck and run against whoever is in the other of the two queuing lines.
Remarkably this is the tenth anniversary of the annual Rømø Motor Festival – the first race, back in 2016, attracted fewer than 30 competitors, some of whom have run at every event since and are competing this year, too.
It would not be unfair to say that during this year’s early summer the global old-car movement was overwhelmed with events ranging from multimillion-dollar auctions and heavily subscribed race meetings to aggressively competitive concours, huge commercial hypercar unveilings and even mid-week gatherings.
Rømø is none of these things. Where else is there a rock band playing on an old trailer in the scrutineering area, opposite a supermarket whose car park is crammed with 1950s and ’60s American cruisers?
While the racing is competitive, car ownership or condition are not. No one is famous and there are no content-creating influencers. That is why my good friend Phil Wells and I have driven 1600km-plus from East Anglia to take part this year. I’ve towed my 1925/1932 Ford Alexander Special on a trailer, but heroic Phil has driven his Ford A-motored 1925 Model T all the way across Holland, Germany and Denmark.
The days before the Saturday racing are always a very casual part of the Rømø event. Wednesday evening sees an informal get-together for hot rodders and vintage bikers on what we call the Big Beach (or Sønderstrand) to the south of the island, where there is horse riding, sand yachting and plenty of room for doughnuts or drifting. Thursday is a Coffee and Cakes classic car and hot rod show in the huge gardens of the café run by the wife of the local chief of police.
A walk through the spectators’ car parks always reveals some fascinating machinery. I’ve already seen a glorious 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900C with a very stylish Carrozzeria Touring body, countered by a perfect ‘chopped top’ 1939 Mercury Eight Coupe with fine rear wheel spats.
A 1964 Volvo P210 Duett two-door station wagon is a very rare car, being based on the PV544 with styling similar to the 1940s American Fords, and this handsome machine has recently become highly sought after in Sweden.
With soft, damp sand and a very strong headwind, speeds at the Rømø Motor Festival 2026 are not expected to be high. The sand at the startline quickly cuts up into quite deep grooves, making a decent start problematic. The competitors are only measured, in km/h, for top speed, so the runs are not timed. Instead, two sophisticated speed recorders at the finish line are used.
The fastest top speed for the cars is set by Lars-Olof Dahl in his V8-powered 1932 Model B Ford at 105.88km/h, while for motorcycles Daniel Hellström on his single-cylinder JAP-motored 1946 ‘Longtrack’ dirt-track racer achieves an impressively fast 127.11km/h.
It is generally agreed that the day has still been brilliant. We will be back – and hopefully a few more Brits will join us.
Find out more about the Rømø Motor Festival here.
