Clastres Raceway, Clastres, France, 17th May 2026: When the daylight hits on a Sunday morning on a racetrack, it means one thing: race time! Unfortunately, only a dark cloud to be found at Clastres Raceway that morning. The forecast for the entire day wasn’t favorable either, and several competitors decided to load their cars back into the trailers and head home. But the Association Throphee Dragster and track crew didn’t give up, and around 13.00 the races resumed with the first elimination rounds. The Juniors and True Street reached 3 elimination rounds before it started pouring, and the races were canceled (the other categories only reached 2). The rain shower was so heavy and lasted so long that even the award ceremony was canceled and postponed to the next race in June.

Text: Benjamin Wefer,
Pictures: Benjamin Wefer,

As the final race was not run due to rain. The Association Throphee Dragster decided to award the Winner, runner-up, and first runner-up based on the standings. Meaning the points accumulated during qualification rounds and elimination rounds would determine the numbers one, two, and three. We didn’t receive the lists yet, but let us break it down for you and summarize the Sunday/weekend as much as possible.

Let’s start with the championship’s fastest category: Super Pro ET (SPET). Reigning champion Lucas Potthoff claimed the top qualifying spot during Q3 on Saturday and beat French competitor Olivier Coulon, who withdrew from the race due to technical issues after the burnout. Potthoff also defeated Angel Romero, who ran 0.02 faster than his dial-in (8.17 seconds) and gave the race away. Potthoff ran a 7.783 seconds at 277 on a 7.75-second dial-in. Potthoff would have had a bye in the quarter-finals and progressed to the semi-finals. Second qualifier Laurent Arnaud also won the first elimination round against Robert Gassner and received a bye in E2 due to a no-show. Patrick Dubois, the third qualifier, was also still in competition and just staged his car when the race was rained out. According to inside information, Lucas maintains his lead and has won this championship round by collecting the most points.

Lucas Potthoff

Laurent Arnaud

Patrick Dubois

In Pro ET (PET), Bruno Chamagne, Clair-Ange Renard, and Peter Stevens were ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. While Chamagne and Renard both went through to the second elimination round, Peter Stevens, the reigning champion, has withdrawn from the race due to the weather forecast. The following racers were still in competition when it started to rain: Bruno Chamagne, Dirk Sommer, Stefan Albert, Tristan Louwaars, Ed Breedveld, Martin Weikum, C Renard, N Ritter, Katja Krull, Gerard van der Heide, John van Oorschout, Laurent Claes, and Christian Wetzel.

Supercomp (SC) was this time dominated by Janine Petzold with a nice 8.91 run, followed by Kenneth Celestin and Cheyenne Visser, who qualified third. It was a 9-car entry for supercomp this time, therefore a four-round elimination ladder. While Janine had a bye in the first round, Kenneth defeated Clarissa Czekalla and progressed to 2nd round (quarter-finals). Czekalla was sharp on the tree with a reaction time of 0.036 seconds vs 0.106 for Kenneth. But Czekalla went faster than the supercomp index (8.817 seconds), while Celestin ran 8.959 seconds at 245 km/h and progressed to the next round. Cheyenne Visser met the reigning supercomp champion, Gerd Habermann, in the first elimination round. Both left pretty sharp on the tree, but Cheyenne was in front the whole time and crossed the finish line in 8.939 at 252 km/hrs, while Gerd clocked a 9.319 second run. Janine Petzold, Sam Weyland, Kenneth Celestin, Cheyenne Visser, and Didier Billault were still in the competition before the rain hit.

Janine Petzold

Kenneth Celestin

Cheyenne Visser

Remarkable to say that Gerd Haberman is debuting a brand-new dragster for the 2026 season, therefore not running as consistently as he normally does. For sure, it won’t take too long before Gerd is back in the 8.9’s seconds.

Marianne Wisotzke, Philip Dauid, and Maximilian Scharnagi were the top qualifiers in SuperGas (SG) after three rounds of qualification. Ten entries for SuperGas this time, which resulted in a short elimination ladder. While top qualifier Wisotzke got eliminated in the first round, Daud and Scharnagl were still in competition when the race was canceled. Daud would have met Stefan Gebhardt in the quarterfinals, and Maximilian Scharnagi would have had a bye and met E Haccoun (also with a bye in the quarterfinals) in the semi-finals.

In Street Run (SR), it was Simon Pagani, Maxime Chevaillaud, and Dimitri van Hoo Landt in positions one, two, and three. 17 entries this time for the Street legal category, and it was interesting from the start, with some close races. The top three were still in competition after one round of elimination. Besides the top three, the following racers were still in competition before the race was canceled: Laurent Arnould, Dimitri van Hoo Landt, C Kruiswijk, Axelle Arnould, Samantha Fermond, and A van der Heide.

Quite a few new cars were debuted this year. One of them in Street run is from Team Samantha, who’s stepped away from the 3rd-generation Pontiac Firebird and is racing a C3 Chevrolet Corvette for the 2026 season.

And of course, we can’t forget the future of drag racing, the Junior Dragsters competitors! Mia Thoma from Switzerland surprised everybody with a stunning 0.00063-second reaction time to claim the number one spot on Saturday, followed by Dutch competitor Sam Timmers and German competitor Felix Schmid. Mia had a bye in the first elimination round and won from J van der Heide in E2. She would have met L Erichsen in E3. Also, Felix Schmidt was still competing before the race was canceled (reached the quarter-finals). Meanwhile, Sam Timmers was eliminated by L Erichsen in the first elimination round.

The 29th European Dragster went into the history books as one of the most rain-soaked ones. But one thing is out of our hands: the weather. The Track crew did their absolute best, and the competitors still enjoyed their weekend together with their racing family. We want to congratulate all our winners. To the rest of the racers, keep a positive mindset. Every journey is a learning experience, and you’ll return next time stronger to beat the competition! Enjoy the media gallery.

 

 

 

 

 

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