Dragrace Madness Drachten 2022

Drachten Airstrip, The Netherlands 16th June 2022. After there weren’t any races for four years, due to several reasons, we can say that the races at Drachten are back! DRAGNL and 402 automotive joined forces for this brand new event called; Drag race Madness. The summer weather forecast came as a blessing, and a lot of drivers and spectators when back to their roots by visiting the local track.

Text: Benjamin Wefer in collaboration with Remco Scheeling (Autosport.nl)

Pictures: Benjamin Wefer

DRAGNL organization was founded in 2020 and is a collaboration between several races. Their purpose is to organize professional quarter-mile races again in The Netherlands. The weekend started slow on Friday afternoon with the first tests and qualification runs and continued on Saturday but was anything but smooth. The track crew did their best to keep the track in optimal condition. Not all the planned qualification runs happened on Saturday due to several crashes and oil downs. The organization decided to leave the elimination rounds out, allowing racers to perform as many passes as possible. The top three qualifiers would become the winners of the weekend.

Nick Weel	Ed Breedveld

Sébastien Lajoux takes the win in Super Pro ET! Kenneth Celestin was the only one who made a pass on Friday but couldn’t go for it due to traction and technical problems. The team was unable to fix these problems in the following days. On another note, Sebastien rolled out the car from the trailer on Saturday and performed a stunning seven-second pass at 322 km/h. Sebastien takes the first place on Sunday with 7.556 seconds run at 286 km/hrs. Matthijs Kraetzer, who was third on Saturday, improves his time and takes second place. Kirsten van Croonenborgh takes the third spot with a time of 9.294 seconds at 186 km/hrs.

Sébastien Lajoux	Matthijs Kraetzer
Kirsten van Croonenborgh	Kenneth Celestin

In Pro ET, it is Nick Weel that the first place with a 9.644-second run at 221 km/hrs. (Nick had a DAIL-IN of 9.634 sec, therefore a 0.010-sec difference). It’s Nick’s first time behind the wheel of the Blue Angel Mustang and his first race ever. Nick started in the high 10 seconds on Friday and kept lowering his time during the weekend. Niek de Kruif,  Saturday’s leader, ended up in second place. Third place went to Arie Wester.

Nick Weel	Arie Wester

Mike Olie takes first place in Funny Bike with a 7.346-second run at 258 km/hrs. Mike started in the high seven-second (7.80 seconds) run on Friday but managed to lower his time to 7.765 seconds on Saturday to maintain his position on the list. Second place went to Kars van den Belt with an 8.183 second run at 250 km/hrs. Jack Olie ended up in third place.

Mike Olie	Kars van den Belt

Flavius Permit takes the win in Pro street bike! Weekend Leader Jaarold brown had encountered some technical problems during the qualification on Sunday and saw the first place slip away.  Second place went to Nic Vieeira and Third place to Naichel Martis from crossfire racing.

Flavius Permit	Nico Vieeira
Naichel Martis	Jaarold Brown

With more than 170 entries and several spectators who visited the races over the weekend, the drag race Madness weekend was the place to be last weekend and the opportunity for new racers to get in touch with the world of drag racing. This was the only race scheduled from the brand new DRAGNL team, but for sure, more will follow.

Chantal van Loon (First time at Drachten)	Disraely Piternella (First time at Drachten)

Below is the complete winner list and don’t forget the photo gallery at the end of the list.