18 October 2023

Dress rehearsal for World Cup season at Indoor Friesland

On Thursday evening, October 26, the very best Four-in-Hand drivers will drive at Indoor Friesland in Leeuwarden. Bram Chardon, Koos de Ronde, Boyd Exell, Dries Degrieck, Glenn Geerts and Daniel Naprous will here drive their dress rehearsal for the World Cup season, which kicks off the following weekend in Lyon (FRA).

“I see this as our dress rehearsal for the World Cup season”, tells Bram Chardon. The brand new European champion is looking forward to it immensely. “I wasn’t at Indoor Friesland myself last year, but I did see the videos and photos and read the news reports. What especially struck me was the decoration and ambiance of the main ring and the atmosphere there. It is comparable to the World Cup competitions we drive.”

“I then thought that it would be very nice if the driving sport would also be represented there, precisely because that date fits perfectly into the schedule. After all, there are not many such big events in the Netherlands. I approached sports director Yvonne van Bergen and she was immediately enthusiastic. Of course it had to go past the board and the organization, but in the end the idea thus became reality!”

World Cup format

Besides Bram Chardon, five more drivers from the top ten of the outdoor season have been invited. “It was the idea to invite drivers from the highest level, so that we can be sure that it will be a nice competition and that we can compete well against each other. It promises to be a very nice competition to watch, where the differences will only be small”, Chardon said. Johan Jacobs is the course designer.

The idea and format is exactly the same at Indoor Friesland as it is at World Cup competitions. There will be cones and two movable marathon obstacles in the arena and the teams will go through and over them as fast as possible. The course takes about two minutes and goes purely by time and speed. In addition, each fallen ball costs an extra four seconds of time.

Click here for the program

Source: Indoor Friesland

Photo: Krisztina Horváth