Spreewaldring: the track that grew opposite the karts

In May 2007 a counter was ticking on the website of the Spreewaldring Training Center, and beneath it stood an announcement: in June the new motodrome would roll out to the start. Opposite the existing kart track in Waldow, a village in the Brandenburg Spreewald, an asphalt road course of about 2.7 km was taking shape, conceived as a place to train away from public roads. The sentence closing that page was short: "Asphalt kann jeder", meaning anyone can lay asphalt. The founders' ambition was something other than another racing arena: a driving school for people who want to test the limits of themselves and of their car.

Location	Schönwald, Waldow district, Dahme-Spreewald county, Brandenburg; by the A13 motorway, about 35 minutes' drive from Potsdamer Platz in Berlin
Type	permanent training and coaching circuit for cars and motorcycles
Length and configuration	2.7 km, 10 m wide; thanks to a shortcut, two loop variants, fast and technical (Speed and Handling)
Year of opening	2007; opening event on 15 July 2007
Direction of travel	clockwise
Number of corners	17 (10 right, 7 left)
Facilities	500 m² pit hall, 200 m service lane, 5,400 m² paddock, natural grandstand 300 m long
Noise limit	98 dB(A) in the near-field measurement
Operator	STC Spreewaldring Training Center GmbH
Main events	Time Rounds Cup, Built not Bought festival
Status	active

First came the kart

Reinhard Budde and Heiko Brademann, as a reporter of the regional magazine Top Magazin Brandenburg put it, "set the kart track into the Mark Brandenburg sand" around 1995; in 2015 Budde spoke of "almost exactly 20 years" of the facility, and a year later he was wearing a shirt printed with "20 Jahre Kart-Center". The location was not the first choice. "Actually we wanted to be closer to the city boundary, but it quickly turned out that we are well placed in the Spreewald", Budde recalled. The facility grew, as he put it, in "small, healthy steps": a paddock was added, a service lane, catering, 20,000 W of lighting, automatic timing, gravel run-offs and a crew of marshals.

The kart loop measures 800 m; skilled drivers take karts up to 80 km/h on it. Since 2007 it has hosted the Brandenburg-Cup, a race in which teams from banks and from companies in the region start in equal proportions. The idea came from Miloš Stefanović, director of the Bürgschaftsbank Brandenburg, who on the occasion of the "Founders' Days" in 2007 honoured the awarded entrepreneurs with a race on the track in Waldow. By the tenth edition in May 2016, 91 different teams had passed through the event, on average 34 a year, and the entry fee traditionally went to charity. In 2015 Budde estimated that 80 per cent of the events on the kart track were corporate bookings.

Asphalt on the other side of the road

The road course was built by Reinhard Budde and Manfred Werker next to the kart track, which had existed for more than twelve years by then. Announced for June, it started with a slight delay: the opening event took place on 15 July 2007, in heat exceeding 35 degrees and under a cloudless sky. The portal go-kart.de reported that motorsport enthusiasts from across the region came to Waldow; a band played live, oldtimers were presented and rides in racing taxis were drawn by lot. Among the guests was six-year-old Mike Beckhusen, introduced as a young ADMV talent who was to go with his father to the Nürburgring the following day, as well as the Berlin team H.A.R.D. Speed with their Dacia Logans running in the Dacia Logan Cup and the rally drivers Romano Schultz and Jean Ihlefeldt, who made their car available as a taxi. The same portal judged that the new facility halfway to Cottbus was an alternative to the larger tracks in the area, Oschersleben and EuroSpeedway (today's Lausitzring), both for amateurs and for teams testing cars before races.

The track itself, in the operator's description, measures 2.7 km with a width of 10 m and has 17 corners, ten right and seven left; it is driven clockwise. A link allows two loop variants, fast and technical, and part of the track can be sprinkled with water. Beside it stand a 500 m² pit hall with power, three-phase power, water and compressed air, a 50 m² training room with multimedia equipment, a 200 m service lane and a paddock of 5,400 m². Spectators have a natural grandstand 300 m long at their disposal. The whole site takes up about 25 ha right by the A13 motorway; the operator stresses the proximity of the Tropical Islands water park and of hotels within a quarter of an hour's drive.

A school instead of an arena

From the beginning the profile of the Spreewaldring was defined not by competition but by learning. As early as 2007 the operator announced open track sessions for everyone, also as a supplement to driving instruction, events for clubs, groups and teams, tests for makers of accessories and tuning parts, and presentations for car dealerships and manufacturers. More than a decade later the offer looked similar, only broader: motorcycle courses from basic cornering training to advanced track training, the STC licence course, car training sessions, drives in Formel König and Formel Masters single-seaters, the Time Rounds Cup, described by the operator as driving and racing training, and sports training with Marc Basseng, FIA GT1 world champion.

Noise limits apply: emission above 98 dB(A) in the near-field measurement is not permitted, and breaking the rule ends with exclusion from the event without a refund of the fee. The kart track on the other side of the road operates as a separate company, Spreewaldring Kart-Center GmbH. It is run today by Tassilo Budde, the founder's son, and Heiko Brademann, present at the facility since day one, is managing partner and race director. Towards the end of the 2026 season the kart track's occupancy calendar showed whole days blocked by closed events, with ticketed sessions squeezed into the remaining slots.

Built not Bought

In June the track is taken over by Built not Bought, a racing festival for "hobby racers, tinkerers and racing fans", which in 2022, as Märkischer Bote wrote, was returning to Waldow "after the great success of recent years". Classics, custom bikes and racing machines go out on track, solo and with sidecars; alongside the races there are a bonfire, a barbecue, a campsite, a party in the paddock and the "Schraubermeile", an exhibitors' lane where craftsmen show their workshop skills. In 2022 a day ticket cost 15 euros, a weekend ticket 25 euros, children up to 14 entered free of charge.

That edition, held on 11 and 12 June 2022 in ten classes for solo riders and sidecar crews, ended in tragedy. On the Saturday afternoon a 48-year-old motorcyclist lost control of his machine in the area of a corner, hit a barrier and died on the spot despite the arrival of an emergency doctor. According to the police, cited by the dpa agency, he was riding alone, and an investigation into the causes was opened. None of the available sources describes any changes to the track's safety measures after that accident.

Apart from that one weekend, the calendar is filled with test drives in single-seaters, motorcycle training for beginners, open track sessions and hire of the track for closed events. The slogan from 2007 still fits this place: anyone can lay asphalt, and for close to two decades the Spreewaldring has lived off what is done on it.

Timeline

• around 1995: Reinhard Budde and Heiko Brademann open an 800 m kart track in Waldow
• 2007: the first Brandenburg-Cup, a kart race of banks and companies from the region
• 15 July 2007: opening event of the Spreewaldring Training Center, a road course of about 2.7 km built by Reinhard Budde and Manfred Werker
• 21 May 2016: tenth edition of the Brandenburg-Cup on the kart track
• 11–12 June 2022: Built not Bought festival; on the Saturday a 48-year-old motorcyclist dies