The largest field of Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars ever in Australia will take to Perth Motorplex this Saturday, December 2.
An amazing 15 cars have journeyed from around the nation to converge on Perth for what is expected to be the biggest nitro festival of the season, with hope for another 10,000+ attendance like their January 7 show at the same venue.
Leading the charge in ‘Red Devil’ will be Shane Olive, the new speed king of Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars following an astonishing 5.49 pass at 274mph in Queensland. Olive is one of the busiest racers on the tour, working full time at the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car workshop and driving one of the trucks 3941 kilometres across the Nullarbor to reach Perth Motorplex carrying a combined 38,000 horsepower of Funny Cars in the back!
“It’s a long trip with 4 days on the road but when you pull out in front of a packed Perth Motorplex, every bump and kilometre travelled is well worth it,” Olive said.
While the 5.49 represented a nearly perfect run on a cool Queensland night, conditions are expected to be perfect come night time this Saturday for the record to drop again.
Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars series manager Morice McMillin will also have his hands full, supervising race day and racing ‘One Bad Kiwi’.
McMillin said after last year’s 10,000 plus attendance, he is hopeful to see another huge event.
“We are proud to have 14 Nitro Funny Cars competing for the Rocket trophies at the Perth Motorplex. To have 14 cars shows the success and entertainment these events produce,” he said.
“The Perth event was the biggest event we have ever had and we hope the Perth crowd continues to support the event as we plan on making this event even better than the last!”
Western Australia’s nitro pilots are also preparing for what is expected to be the biggest spectator turnout of the 2017/18 season.
Looking to charge on to the podium for the first time will be the Northern Territory’s Matt Abel, driving Fun-Da-Mental, who left his mark on the Motorplex last season in more ways than one.
“At the last Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car event we started okay with a 5.78sec., but on our second run we were sitting in full stage for a long time and a puddle of nitro on the track just in front of the right hand rear tyre turned the car into the wall,” he said.
“The car has since had the body repaired and many updates with a new supercharger and fuel pump as we chase more power.”
Abel and Perth-based car owner Rory Taylor completed one test pass of the upgraded combination at the recent Prestige Lock Services Goldenstates event but a dropped cylinder meant Abel struggled to keep the car in the centre of his lane.
“It felt very fast until I had to pedal the car to steer it back,” he said. “We are chasing Nitro Express and The Red Devil and will be aiming for 5.50sec at 415kmh plus.
“We don’t do anywhere near the laps that those Aeroflow cars run, which gives them a lot of tune up info, but Rory Taylor is an accomplished nitro tuner in his own right and I’m sure he won’t be holding back. We will be trying to run consistently fast and win the event.”
Abel’s biggest challenge may come from another local team in the form of The Beach Bomb. Driver Andrew Katavatis said he was really looking forward to getting amongst the competition at WA’s biggest Funny Car event.
“This event was massive last season with over 10,000 people coming to see the show so it should be even bigger this time round,” he said.
The Beach Bomb team were happy with their pace last season and have been hesitant to change anything major in a strong race car.
“There’s no big changes, but we’ve made a lot of little changes to refine the car and our tune up,” he said. “We were pretty happy with last season’s final runs so we want to carry the momentum back into this season and keep one of the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car ‘rocket trophies’ in WA.”
Father and daughter will go head to head when Anthony Begley faces off against Emma Begley.
While the tale of the tape shows Anthony with the greater experience, Emma has been the one making most laps recently in her Funny Car named Groove’n as she prepares for her first runs in competition as part of the series.
“I can definitely say that there are some nerves, as we are going up against really great racers and teams,” she said. “The Groove’n team have been working like crazy to prepare the car, even working through this weekend.”
Emma explained her focus will be on making it down the strip in every round and using consistency to do the damage rather than outright performance.
“Our main goal for this event will be to get the car straight down the track. We have been having a few teething issues, therefore we hope for this event to get some consistency, as well as experience and seat time. And maybe if we get the chance to go up against Dad, it would be nice to beat him!”
Anthony isn’t about to shy away from that challenge, and given he will be driving one of the Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car Series’ most well known cars, the LA Hooker, he has the horsepower to show his daughter who is boss.
“I’m excited as always to race on my home track and really looking forward to maybe drawing Emma in a round,” he said. “We haven’t made a lot of changes to the car so like Emma we are looking to just get some good consistent passes in.”
The field includes Red Devil (Shane Olive), Nitro Express (Rick Gauci), Dark Horse (Paul Messineo), One Bad Kiwi (Morice McMillin), Beach Bomb (Andrew Katavatis), LA Hooker (Anthony Begley), The Bandit (Josh Leahy), Groove’n (Emma Begley), No Laughing Matter (Frank Taylor), Fun-da-Mental (Matt Abel) and Let’s Boogie (Justin Walshe). For the first time in Western Australia will be Avenger (Dan Donnelly), Bumblebee (Jake Donnelly) and Gambler (Nathan Coles).
Still want more Funny Cars? Well, what about the wheelstanding variety? Nitro Sheriff and The Rocket Ship driven by Fred Westhoff and Aaron Burge respectively will be on track with their flame throwing show that will leave you speechless!
OK, but maybe you want more nitro? Look across to the Nitro Bike field where Jay Upton will continue his search for the five second zone, taking on the world’s fastest amputee Benny Stevens as well as Les Holden and Greg Durack.
Throw in the Summer Slam Series Top Doorslammers featuring John Zappia, Kelvin Lyle, Daniel Gregorini, Pino Priolo, Marty Dack and Ryan Moresby and you have the recipe for one of the greatest shows Perth Motorplex has ever seen, do not miss a moment!
Qualifying starts from 10am with the feature program beginning from 4.30pm. The Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars will salute the crowd at 5pm with their first round at 6pm.
– AONFC and Perth Motorplex Media Releases
