Sydney driver Rick Gauci walked away with yet another Aeroflow Outlaw Funny Cars win at Perth Motorplex on Saturday night, driving to an impressive 5.468 second run in the final round to wrap up the victory.
In front of a capacity crowd of some 10,000 attendees, Gauci (above, image courtesy High Octane Photos) took ‘Nitro Express’ to the winner’s circle despite battling some mechanical problems on the way.
“While working with a fuel pump gremlin my amazing tuner Graeme Cowin and crew pulled off a 5.46 pass at 420kph in the final,” he said. “And that’s how the west was won.”
The event proved a mixed bag for Western Australian teams. Andrew Katavatis and the Beach Bomb Camaro made three consistent runs but didn’t have the outright performance for wins, with an electrical problem rearing its head while Katavatis also gave the wall a slight scrape on one pass. Rory Taylor’s Nitro Thunder car also struggled, besting with a 5.94 run in the second round, well off their potential.
Bucking the trend was Emma Begley, who recently took over driving the Let’s Boogie car, which is part of the official Aeroflow stable. Begley took two wins from three rounds and set a new personal best time of 5.74sec. at 404kph.
“The team are over the moon with the passes and results we got over the weekend at Perth Motorplex,” Begley said. “Leaving the event with two wins and three clean and straight full track passes, what more could we want?
“We hope we did the west coast proud. Watch out boys, I am coming for the podium next event.”
Check out the video reviews of the event below, and make sure to look at the photo gallery as well:
In the Direct Mining International Summer Slam Series, Steve Aldridge broke through for a win in his Plymouth Barracuda with a quick 5.853sec. in the final round to defeat Mark Chapman.
Aldridge looks to have finally found the sweet spot with his car, which endured troublesome handling through the early part of the season. Ever pass Aldridge made for the event was in the five second zone, in what proved a confidence building day for the team.
Sam Treasure took victory in Top Comp, using a 5.949sec. pass in the final to defeat a red lighting Trent Morrison. Like Aldridge, Treasure was living in the ‘fives’ and overwhelmed his opponents.
Super Comp saw Todd Stacy continue his golden streak, defeating Ralph Lewis in the final, while Supercharged Outlaws saw Alan Mahnkoph standing tall once more, getting by Darryl Mullins in the final.
A small Competition Bike field went to reigning champ Phill Paton against Brett Ghedina, while an entertaining Outlaw Radial field saw Darryl Maxfield defeat Tim Roads for the win with a 7.571sec. pass, one of the best runs yet seen in the class.
Chris Roe made it three wins from four events so far this season in Top Sportsman by defeating Amanda Martin, while Mark Grieve brought home the Modified win from Jeff Acton.
Matt Gullotto broke through for a long threatened Super Sedan win in wife Stephanie’s car, defeating Mick Fenton.
Chris Moore claimed his first ever victory in Modified Bike against former national champ Ian Read, while Joel Trotman ascended to the points lead of Super Street by defeating Kenah Begg in the final of Super Street.
The Perth Motorplex drag strip will light up once again on February 2 for Nitro Night.
