Midnight Madness is a motorsport event for cars and motorcycles held at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois. The event lasted from 5 p.m.-12 a.m. This event allows people to showcase their cars and skills. They hold events such as drifting and drag racing. People come from all over the place to come watch these cars.
“I’ve been into cars since I was a little kid from watching car movies, and I just really wanted to go to see some cool cars,” Connor Althage (10) said.
Midnight Madness is different from other motor sport events because any car can do any of the events as long as they pass inspection. A lot of drifters and drag racers don’t get a whole lot of opportunities to show off their car or skills, plus people who enjoy cars, and car events get to watch and appreciate their skills.
World Wide Technology Raceway is a venue for any motor sport event such as Import Face-Off, Midnight Madness, even Formula Drift. St. Louis, Missouri PRO Formula Drift driver Derek Madison made an appearance at Midnight Madness to practice his drift skills. He has many sponsors such as Coilover Depot and Fuelab. He’s driving a Nissan S15 with the number 27. He is 32 years old and has been racing in PROSPEC drifting for five years.
When asked about how he got to Formula Drift, he said, “It wasn’t easy. I had to build my way up. Luckily, I have a group of friends who supported me, and who are still on my team today,” Madison said. Madison will be competing in 2025 season of Formula Drift but will be attending local drifting events along the way.
Cars such as the C6 Corvette, Nissan 350z, and BMW E36, came to drift. Midnight Madness is a great alternative to illegal street racing because they have a ton of safety precautions. They have fire safety, ambulances, tows, and police to make sure everyone is safe. They also have to provide id and insurance and an inspection before they are allowed to enter the event. They also have waivers for drivers and passengers 16 and 17 to protect them if anything happens.
On the drag strip, we saw motorcycles and cars racing. Drag racing is an event where you drive in a straight line racing another vehicle to see who will reach the finish line first. Most vehicles will hit 13-14 seconds. Top fuel dragsters usually run 3-4 seconds on a quarter mile drag strip. One of the trickier things about drag racing is the light telling them to go. The light goes from red to green, when the light hits green it’s go time. A lot of drag strip racers got held back due to a slow reaction time making their overall time longer and causing them to lose.
