To say Tom van der Wijden is crazy about drag racing is an understatement. Now 39 years old, he started racing in 2006. “I was already involved in the American car scene and went to Zandvoort for a streetlegal race with my Pick Up. And as so many others, I was hooked.” Van der Wijden started racing in his GMC truck in the official Dutch Championship and the DHRA streetlegal series, and was the 2009 runner-up in Sportsman ET and Pro ET. But the man from ‘s-Gravenzande (near The Hague) wanted to go faster, so the GMC left the garage and the Chevrolet Chevelle came in.

The winter was spent to bring the car to the level Van der Wijden wanted and in 2010 and 2011 he was in the top three of the Dutch Pro ET Championship again. Many hours were spent to make the Chevelle faster, better and look more professional and even a new engine was bought to take his Step-a-Side Dragracing team to the next level. The result, last year Van der Wijden entered the Super Comp and Super Pro ET class, ended up third in the Dutch Super Pro ET championship, was fifth in the Dutch Super Comp Championship and the first EDRS European Drag Racing Series Super Pro ET champion Division South!

As a real drag racing addict Van der Wijden and his team do as many races as possible, time and money wise. “We were at the Main Event at Santa Pod and will do the Euro Finals and maybe National Finals there too. Of course the three races for the Dutch Championship at Drachten and the NitrOlympX at Hockenheim. To get five EDRS results we might go to Vandel in Denmark as well. And don’t forget the races for the DHRA streetlegal series, but some dates clash with other races, so we can’t do them all.” For Van der Wijden the EDRS European Drag Racing Series is very important.


At Drachten

Tom van der Wijden

“It is good for European drag racing to have an international championship. You race at other tracks and meet new competitors, that’s good for me as a driver, for the team and the sport of drag racing. That’s one of the reasons I did the championship last year and do it again now.”

Van der Wijden and his crew of dedicated team members is always looking at the next step. “If the budget would be there, we would do Pro Mod. But for now that’s not possible. We used nitrous for the first time at the Main Event and ran a personal best with 8.23 seconds in our first run. This chassis is 8.5 sec. legal, so we must have a new one next year. We don’t want to change this combination, as it runs good and consistent and so we want to sell it as a rolling chassis, without the engine, but if someone is interested, we can also sell it turnkey. We are already looking for a 6.0 sec. proofed chassis, in Europe but also in the States.” And for this year his goals are loud and clear: “Consistent 8.50/8.55 second runs, win races and championships.”

Van der Wijden’s team, Step-a-Side Dragracing, is supported by his own (part-time) company Step-a-Side USA Parts, like the name already sais, an import company for American car and racing parts. An important and long-time sponsor is WVB Holland, owned by Willem van Balen a good friend for many years, Spa Visie, American Service Point, West Cars Autoschade, Custom Exhaust Shop, IH-Ortho and JLM.