Justus Schaan behind the wheel of his dragster. The teen racer will compete in the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals on July 21-23,2023 in Seattle. (Photo Courtesy Kevin Kyle)

By Chris Brown

Need for speed

Pedal to the metal: Medicine Hat driver Justus Schaan to race in NHRA Northwest Nationals

Jul 12, 2023 | 5:22 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Any spectator can get a sense of the sights and sounds of a dragster as it rips down the track.

You have to be in the vehicle to get the full experience

“It’s so unique like you don’t get the feeling, I think, anywhere else by doing anything else. It’s a very limited thing and it’s exciting,” says Justus Schaan.

Justus has been tearing it up at the Medicine Hat Drag Strip since he was nine years old and has since developed a need for speed.

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Now 18, he ages out of the junior category this year and will do so in style He’s getting ready to represent the Medicine Hat Drag Racing Association in Seattle next weekend at the Flav-R-Pak NHRA Northwest Nationals.

He’ll be one of only eight junior dragsters racing against some of the guys he got autographs from as a kid.

“There’s going to be a lot of, big, big people there and so it will definitely be different especially not being up on that kind of category,” he says. “But hopefully we’ll get the win and come back.”

He’s ready to take it to another level in what will be his first televised races, to be shown on Fox Sports channels.

“I want to be able to make my last year with this car as best as possible, and get out there and show everybody what it’s got in it,” Justus says.

Justus wasn’t always so eager to get behind the wheel and needed a bit of inspiration at the start.

Drag racing is a family experience for the Schaans and Justus says he got into the sport thanks to his dad, who is also a racer. His mom is the junior drag racing director for the local association.

Both had their hands on the wheel – and in their wallets – steering him to drag racing.

“We actually had to get him, to give him a dollar a round,” says his mom Carleen with a laugh. “Just they kind of go in a square just when they’re starting to learn and he did not want to. He was pretty scared so we bribed him with money.”

He was glad to take the money and is happy they pushed him.

He isn’t scared anymore and wants to continue racing, as he sits comfortably in the driver’s seat of a vehicle that can go almost 150 kilometres an hour in just a few seconds.

“It’s exhilarating, for sure,” he says.

Before Justus goes to Seattle you can see him speeding by on Medicine Hat Drag Strip at the National Open this weekend.