F-Body Europe

Dragraces Drachten: It’s on!
Tuesday, 4th of March 2008

Today, in the city-hall of Smallingerland, a Declaration of Intent has been signed by Dragrace club eXplosion and Stichting Vliegveld Drachten, which means for the next five years, dragracing can be held again on the airstrip in Drachten.
On wednesday the 5th, contractor Joost Visser will start work on the tracksurface so dragracers can make their runs again on the 21st and 22nd of June this year.

The current airstrip will be lengthened by 92 meters at the starting-area. The following 220 meters will be milled and new asphalt will be layed down aswell. The first 310 meters of the track won’t be used by airplanes, they will use the remaining 710 meters for landing and take off. Track-work will have to be completed by the 15th of march, because of the upcoming bird breedingseason. During the breedingseason no activity is allowed on the field of the airport.

The signing of this Declaration of Intent marks an end of a long period of negotiations between Dragrace club eXplosion, the county of Smallingerland and Stichting Vliegveld Drachten.
During the summer of 2006, 30+ years of Dutch Dragracing came to a sudden halt because of an excessive track clean-up. Things got rolling again in the summer of 2007, after an initiative by small group of concerned citizens, who liked to see dragracing come back to their local airstrip. The city council unanimously agreed the citizen’s motion. After the mayor of Drachten, Bert Middel also agreed with eXplosions plans, negotiations could start which finally resulted in today’s signing of the Declaration of Intent by both parties.
Dragrace club eXplosion now has the right to organize 3 dragrace-events per year, for the next 5 years. This right was very important for eXplosion because of the investments needed to alter the airstrip netted a total of €150.000,-. This money will be primarily funded by investors and sponsors. The 3 race-weekends for 2008 are planned on 20-22 of june, 11-13 of july and 29-31 of august.

Chairman of eXplosion, Theo Willemse, was very pleased with the result and signing of the agreement. “We can make runs again and we’ll now get a dragrace-track of European quality.” Without the help of contractor Joost Visser things might have been a lot harder to accomplish in time. Theo also wants to thank the VVD and SP-fractions, and others, for their political support. Great thanks also go to the citizen’s who filed the initiative so it became an item on the local goverments meeting-agenda. Also thanks to the people who cooperated with us during this time. Bert Middel was pleased to be able announce on local radio today the return of dragracing to Drachten and the (economical) importance for the area.





Thanx to all who supported us!!!

Great accomplishment! Congrats.