Dragrace Madness Drachten 2023

Drachten Airstrip, The Netherlands 7/8/9 July 2023; After a successful race weekend last year, the Dutch Hot Rod Association (DHRA) & 402 Automotive joined forces again to hold another; Drag Race Madness weekend. Competitors when back to their local track with mixed feelings, as this might be the last race ever to be held at this airstrip. But this didn’t stop them from having fun and enjoying the sport they love. Sebastien Lajoux, Ed Breedveld, and Thore Wolf are the winners in Super Pro ET, Pro ET, and Junior dragster. For the Bikes, Kars van den Belt, Naichel Martis, Gert-Jan Laseur, and Anouk Burgering are the winners of Funny Bike, Pro street bike, and Street Twin Bike.

Text: Benjamin Wefer
Pictures: Benjamin Wefer

Qualification started on Friday afternoon and continued on Saturday. On Sunday, the DHRA organization decided not to run any elimination (except the Junior Dragster Category) to give the riders as many runs as possible due to the upcoming rain forecast and as this might be the last race ever on this airstrip. The local authorities and landowners have different plans for the area, where a motorsport event is no longer welcome.

Sebastien Lajoux (the man who has the track record on his name at Clastres Raceway, France) ended up in first place at Drachten airstrip. The Track condition was not at its best on Friday, but Lajoux still stormed to a 7.28-second run at 274 km/hrs (with a 6.60-second dial-in). He maintained his number one spot during the weekend by improving his time on Saturday to an impressive 6.68-second run at 330 km/hrs. Jens Konnecke takes the second pace, leaving Micheal Mikuscheit in third place.

Jens Konnecke	Micheal Mikuscheit

Ed “Buurman” Breedveld takes the number one spot in Pro ET and takes the trophy home. After the last qualification on Friday, Nick Kruif ran an 11.089-second run (on an 11.000 dail-in) to take the number one spot, leaving Robert Vos and Sven Zijlstra in third place. This changed on Saturday, as Breedveld ran a 9.539-second run (on a 9.520 dail in) to take the number one spot. Robert Vos was bumped to the 4th place as Sven Zijlstra (9.812 on a 9.780 dail-in) and Niek de Kruif (10.334 on a 10.300 dail-in) improved their time to take the 2nd and 3rd place. Breedveld didn’t improve his time on Sunday, but this was good enough to maintain his number-one spot. A big surprise on the number two spot, as Maurice Heller, improved his time and climbed the ladder from the number nine spot to claim the second place. Niek de Kruif ended up in third place.

Ed Breedveld	Niek de Kruif

Thore Wolf is the absolute winner in Junior Dragster during the Drag Race Madness weekend (the only car category that ran elimination). Wolf was also the number one qualifier after the last qualification round, leaving Cheyenne Visser and Julian Guttzeit in second and Third place. Wolf and Guttzeit met in the 2nd elimination round. It was a holeshot win for Wolf. The final race went between Thore Wolf and Max Timmers. Timmers had a quicker reaction time on the tree than Wolf but breaks out at the end and gives the race away to Wolf.

Thore Wolf	Max Timmers

Like the car categories, no elimination run for the bikes. Winners were selected based on the first, second, and third place during the qualifications.
Kars Van den Belt takes the number one spot in Funny Bike. Van den Belt struggled on Friday to keep the bike straight and had to be satisfied with an 8.278-second run at 276 km/hrs. As nobody else made a pass on Friday, Kars’s eight-second run was good enough for the number one spot. He continues to improve his time (7.757 at 288 km/hrs on Saturday) to a 7.616-second at 291 km/hrs run on Sunday to maintain his number one spot. Thomas Joswig and Aswin le Noble ended up in second and third place.

Kar van den Belt	Thomas Joswig

Naichel Martis from the Crossfire racing team was the man to beat in Pro Street Bike. Naichel maintains his leading position during the whole weekend. The rider from Curacao started strong with an 8.70-second run at 250 km/hrs and continues to improve his time during the weekend. The end result was an 8.531-second run at 256 km/hrs. Ravin Petronillia ended up in second place with an 8.67-second run at 253 km/hrs, and Jovian Susanna in third place.

Naichel Martis	Ravin Petronillia

Gert-Jan Laseur wins the second Zodiac Street Twin Battle round at Drachten airstrip (The first round was during the American Sunday, see article http://tcobcur.com/ver5/american-sunday-zandvoort-2023/). The retired FIA Twin Bike rider is still having fun on Harley bikes and qualified in the number one spot with a 10.676-second run at 208 km/hrs, leaving Kees van Bakel in second place. Both were the men to beat as they met in the final. Laseur showed the crowd that he did not forget how to race. He had a quicker reaction time (0.141 seconds vs. 0.324 seconds for Van Bakel) and ran a 10.582-second run at 209 km/hrs.

With more than 100 entries and several spectators who visited the races over the weekend, the second edition of the drag race Madness weekend was a fact. Hopefully, the opportunity will come to continue the races in the near future.

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