Behind Staging Lane: Maja Udtian (Dico International)

TIERP ARENA, SWEDEN – 27^th August 2017: as we were walking from the pits back to the 60ft section of the track we bumped into Maja Udtian. In a flip second working out what to ask, but what can you ask the current youngest top fuel driver in Europe. Of course we ask her how does that feel to be the youngest (Nineteen years old), which she replied “ it’s Incredible”. As Drag Race is sport of passion, we were wondering if Maja shared the same passion, how long she’s been sharing this passion, why this particular class, after all it is Top Fuel Dragster.

Coming from a racer’s family where Maja’s dad (Paul Ingar Udtian) were racing since 1995. It wasn’t a wonder that both her and her sister Mari has follows their father into the racing world. At the age of 9 Maya decided to started her racing career in Junior Dragster and have drove in this class before moving to super comp at the age of 16. As Maja’s father start his racing career in Super comp, it was obvious for her to jumped right into a dragster and start competing in super comp herself.

As the passion for Drag Racing grew, so did her dreams. And one of them was to one day be driving a Top Fuel Dragster. As it was also the last class her father drove before putting his own racing career on hold to guide Maja and her Sister. As a strong foundation her father and the rest of the Islander racing team helped and coach Maja to move from Super comp to Top Fuel. At Tierp Arena her childhood dream came true. Maja made her first pass and have obtain her Top Fuel license with a stunning 4.11 second run. This was very emotional moment for her as she obtained her license in same car her father got his license back in 2012.

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She is very grateful with the help she got from her father but hope to meet him at the staging lane in the Top Fuel dragster class.

So what does Drag mean to Maja? In her own words: ‘it’s everything to me, the acceleration, it’s the excitement, the Happiness, the happiness to share, the cars, the noise, my team, it is everything, everything!