The hard work and persistence of the Mid Coast Drag Racing Association, in partnership with ANDRA, continues to drive the return of regional drag racing in New South Wales, with the latest Taree Airport event marking a significant achievement for drag racing at the venue.
For the first time, Junior Dragsters were permitted to compete at the venue, making history as the first purpose-built drag racing vehicles to race at Taree Airport.
The Mid Coast Drag Racing Association was first granted permission to conduct drag racing activities at the airport in 2019. While the inaugural event proved a success, it wasn’t until 2023 that drag racing returned to the venue. Since then, the association has continued to host regular Off Street events on the Mid North Coast, although competition has been limited to street-registered vehicles.
Following extensive discussions between MidCoast Council, the Mid Coast Drag Racing Association and ANDRA, approval was finally granted for Junior Dragsters to take part at the latest event. The breakthrough is viewed as an important first step towards welcoming additional purpose-built drag racing categories to future meetings, further expanding opportunities for regional racers and strengthening grassroots drag racing in New South Wales.
The Junior Dragster Invitational was a great success with 8 Juniors accepting the chance to race, the format saw A Class race A Class and B Class race B Class, with the winners from each class then facing off to determine the overall winner of the day.
Piper Bennett fresh off her involvement with the Aussie team racing in the U.S with the Kanga Kids Tour was the overall winner with Emma Liefting runner up.
A Class Results: 1st – Piper Bennett, 2nd – Macee Watts, 3rd – Jake McNamara, 4th – Georgia Liefting.
B Class Results: 1st – Emma Liefting, 2nd – Amelia Rottenbury, 3rd – Liam O’Neill, 4th – George Terkalas.
Congratulations to everyone involved in making this event a reality, including MidCoast Council, Mid Coast Drag Racing Association, ANDRA, and Travis Liefting and the team at Speedflow for making the event a reality, and let’s hope we see drag racing at Taree Airport continue to expand and grow.
Credit: Mid Coast Drag Racing Association and NSW Junior Dragsters
