Text and photo: Jarl Hole
43 participants and a good spread of brands during this year’s version of Trygg MC’s driver development course at Rudskogen, which took place on Wednesday, May 21. It was quite cold early in the morning, but that didn’t dampen spirits and expectations.
The driver development course at Rudskogen under the auspices of Trygg MC is the brainchild of Trafikksikkerhetsdagen in Skien. Some of the key people behind the Road Safety Day saw a need to go a step further from the driving exercises that make up a large part of the Road Safety Day. They were joined by Rolf Kåre Valderhaug, who for many years was an important contributor to Traffic Safety Day, and together they decided to offer Traffic Safety Day participants a driver development course at Rudskogen as an unofficial follow-up to Traffic Safety Day. With Rolf Kåre Valderhaug at the helm, the first events at Rudskogen were a great success. Based on the good response, it was decided to create a small organization with the sole purpose of arranging a driver development course once a year at Rudskogen. The organization was named Trygg MC and consisted of Jan Petter Lyng, Arnt Sivertsen and Nils Aage Tangvald. It was agreed that Trygg MC would not offer an ordinary track day, but an activity to make the participants better acquainted with and safer on their bikes without oncoming and intersecting traffic, cyclists and pedestrians setting limits. After a day at Rudskogen under the auspices of Trygg MC, the participants would drive home as better motorcyclists.
Rolf Kåre Valderhaug has been important to both Trafikksikkerhetsdagen and Trygg MC. During the course at Rudskogen, he’s the chief instructor and surprised everyone by showing up with a brand new KTM 1390 Adventure. Congratulations on your new bike!
Jan Petter Lyng and Nils Aage Tangvald have retired, but Arnt Sivertsen is still pulling the strings and supporting the current chairman of Trygg MC, Tore Kverndokken. For those with local knowledge, Tore is also chairman of Grenland MC. Rolf Kåre Valderhaug is still a solid contributor in his role as chief instructor and helps to recruit other instructors for the course.
Like the Traffic Safety Day, the Driver Development Course has always had many talented instructors on the team. Well-known profiles such as Stein Rømmerud, Thorvald Sæby, Jon Grevæg, Rolf Petter Halvorsen, Chris Sæther, Adeel Butt, Svenn Helge Sollid and others have, together with Rolf Kåre Valderhaug, raised the level of the course to a very high level year after year.
Tore Kverndokken is chairman of Trygg MC and chairman of Grenland MC. He performs both roles in an excellent manner.
This year’s course, which was held on May 21, had 43 participants who were divided into 8 groups, each with their own instructor. Each driving session lasts 15 minutes and two to three groups are out on the track at the same time. In order to get the best possible benefit from the day, Trygg MC put a lot of effort into dividing the participants into groups based on bike type and driving experience. A participant riding an HD Sportster wouldn’t get the same benefit from the day if they were placed in a group with a Yamaha R1, Honda Fireblade or KTM 1390. Optimizing the groups is therefore key to the quality of the course. Everyone should feel at home on the track and not spend time and effort trying to keep up with riders who have faster bikes and more experience. However, to ensure flexibility, participants can switch groups up and down during the day after a chat with the instructors.
A driver’s meeting before the participants go out on the track is important so that everyone knows what to expect.
This year, the course cost NOK 1,800 per participant. This is somewhat higher than the NOK 1,500 that has been the norm in recent years. However, the author of the article believes that it is money well spent. The moderate increase of NOK 300 is due to increased costs related to track rental, ambulance service and reduced contributions from public authorities. Trygg MC has applied for and received funding for the event every year from both the county and the state. This year, they didn’t receive any money from the government, which has a direct impact on the bottom line. “I raised the cost of the course with several of the participants and no one thought it was too expensive. On the contrary, many expressed a willingness to pay more to take part next year.
The first group is ready for the last first pass and waiting for the green light.
Between sessions, there’s plenty of time for conversation with other participants and the instructor.
One minor drawback with this year’s course was the total absence of female participants. In the past, there has been a good number of women – so many, in fact, that on some occasions a separate group has been set up for women. I brought this up with Tore Kverndokken, who told me that Trygg MC had made a special effort to include women, but that there had been a very poor response this year. I think this is a temporary phenomenon and that women will find their way back. Another group that is conspicuous by its absence is younger riders. This is, in my opinion, a bigger problem that may be harder to find a remedy for. Given that there have been a number of fatal accidents involving young drivers in recent years, it would be important to reach them. Perhaps Trygg MC could offer half price to drivers under the age of 20 at the next crossroads as a trial scheme.
Good drive down the start/finish straight. After a couple of introductory sessions, the participants take turns driving in front of the instructor. The swap takes place on the start/finish straight.
Rudskogen has become a nice and well-functioning post. New this year is a new and expanded signaling system around the entire track and a clear clock on the long side that shows how many minutes are left of the pass.
There’s room for all kinds of bikes on Trygg MC’s driver development course. The author of the article rode his newly acquired Indian Scout 101 and it worked perfectly well in group 8 together with BMW, Triumph and Yamaha.
The results of this year’s version of the driver development course are positive and give clear signals that Trygg MC should continue as they do with many good instructors and good work with the distribution of participants in the different groups.
Welcome to Rudskogen in 2026!
My colleagues in group 8 were a pleasant bunch with varied experience as motorcyclists. To the right is instructor Svenn Helge Sollid, who runs his own driving school for cars and motorcycles. Svenn Helge is also an instructor during the Traffic Safety Day at Flittig motorsports center outside Skien.
