Castres Raceway, France, 17th May 2025: The 26th European Dragster Weekend kicked off the French championship at Clastres Raceway. As the first qualification started, all competitors in Super Pro ET, Pro ET, Super Comp, Super Gas, True Street, and Junior Dragster began to battle against time to position themselves at the top of the qualification list. Despite minor incidents and track cleaning, all qualification runs finished on time. The weather was quite chilly in the morning, but it warmed up nicely and slowly to twenty degrees Celsius. The top qualifiers after six qualification rounds are Lucas Potthoff (Super Pro ET), Rene Jacobs (Pro ET), Didier Billault (Supercomp), Phillipp Daud (SuperGas), Nicolas Chevassus (True Street), and Sam Timmers in Junior Dragster.

Text: Benjamin Wefer
Pictures: Benjamin Wefer,

In addition to the French championship, several competitors will collect points for the D.R.U. Super Pro ET and Pro ET Challenge. Also, several participants entered the Run What You Brought section to test their car or have fun. Several FWD/AWD cars powered by our friend Sneaky Tuning were spotted testing today.

Lucas Potthoff is your top qualifier for Super Pro ET. Pothoff from Germany drove a stunning 7.6311-second run at 283 km/hrs on a 7.63 dial-in in the fourth qualification (Q4) round and maintained the lead till the last round of the day. He couldn’t improve his time in the previous two rounds. This run was good enough to keep the lead. Robbert Gassner (Also from Germany) is second, with an 8.462-second run at 21 km/hrs on an 8.46-second dial-in. Gassner was on a mission today after dropping to position number 8th in the third qualification round, the German driver climbed back up by each round. Thierry Senges (from France) is in third position (after being second til the last round, as Gasnner took the second place) with an 8.953-second run at 242 km/hrs on an 8.95-second index. Senges took the lead in the 3rd qualification round, but lost the lead to Potthoff in the 4th round. Remarkable is that the top five are thousands of seconds from their index time, making this category a tough one.

Lucas Potthoff Robbert Gassner

After six qualification rounds, Rene Jacobs claimed the top qualifier position in Pro ET. After a bumpy start in the first qualification round, Jacobs crossed the finish line in 11.609 seconds (0.009 seconds from his dial-in) at 196 km/hrs in the fourth qualification round. He maintained his lead until the day’s end. Claire-Ange Renard is in second place with a 10.8123-second run at 200 km/hrs on a 10.80-second dial-in. Luc Thilges claimed the number three spot with a 10.91-second run at 197 km/hrs on a 10.90 dial-in. The Dutch driver claimed the third spot in the second qualification round, couldn’t improve his time, but kept the number three spot till the end.

Claire-Ange Renard

Didier Billault is the provisional top qualifier in SuperComp! After positioning himself third for a couple of rounds, Billault got his Challenger together in the last round (qualification round number six) and clocked 8.914 seconds at 246 km/hrs on the quarter mile to take the lead. This was a massive improvement for Clarissa “Killer-Queen” Czekalla, who crossed the finish line in 8.929 seconds at 255 km/hrs, good for the number two spot and pushed Gerd Habermann down the list to the number three spot. Habermann qualified second with an 8.96-second round and managed to improve this in the last round to an 8.93-second run, but still came short to maintain his spot. Following this category during the final qualification round and the elimination ladder would be interesting. Will the veteran in Supercomp (Habermann) win again? Within 24 hours, we will know!

Didier Billault

Clarissa “Killer-Queen” Czekalla

Gerd Habermann

Phillipp Daud takes the provisional number one spot in Supergas! After being in sixth position most of the day, Daud managed to push his GMC pickup to the max in the last round to claim the lead. On the quarter mile, Daud clocked a 9.909-second run at 230 km/hrs (Supergas is heads up category with a 9.90 index). Aureline Menard, who led the class with a 9.916-second run, could not improve her time and is now second. Steven Loisel climbed the ladder during the day and is now third after six qualification rounds. Loisel ended the day with a 9.916-second run at 210 km/hrs. There has been a good increase in participants this year compared to previous years. However, Italian competitor Oscar Scappocin (supergas veteran) was absent this weekend.

Phillipp Daud

Aureline Menard

Steven Loisel

Nicolas Chevassus currently leads Street Run. Chevassus, who won the championship only by 3 points last year, came to show the competitors that he isn’t ready to give up the throne yet. He claimed the number one spot with a 12.385-second run at 180 km/hrs on a 12.38-second index, leaving Dutch driver Jan Willem van der Helm in second with a 13.608-second run at 159 km/hrs. Third place is for Laurent Arnould, who crosses the finish line in 12.030 seconds at 191 km/hrs (Dial-in 12.28).

Nicolas Chevassus
Jan Willem van der Helm

Laurent Arnould

In Junior Dragster, Dutch driver Sam Timmers claimed the number one spot with a remarkable reaction time of 0.00003 seconds! Timmers took the number one spot in the fourth elimination round with a 9.547-second run at 113 km/hrs. The second spot is for German driver Johannes Rapp, who qualified with a reaction time of 0.0078 seconds. The third qualifier is Mia Thoma from Switzerland, who had a reaction of 0.018 in qualification round number six (last round of the day).

Sam Timmers

Johannes Rapp

Mia Thoma

Stay tuned for the second day of the 26th European Dragster weekend (the last Qualifications and elimination rounds!) We from The Chronicles of Boost want to wish all competing drivers good luck, but most of all, have fun!

Note: The photo gallery will be updated in the coming weeks