The Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars packed the Perth Motorplex when they last visited the venue and this event was no different, with the huge West Australian crowd treated to an even better show that left fans on their edge of their seats unit the very last pass of the night.
Dan Donnelly’s Avenger took the first win of the night over Matt Abel in Fundamental to get things kicked off in the sunshine and one of the sport’s brightest stars, Emma Begley took on Shane Olive in Red Devil but Olive took a victory. Josh Leahy debuted well at the Motorplex last year and his 6.083-second pass got him the win over Nathan Coles’ Gambler this year. Justin Walshe and his Terminator got full points with a bye run and so too did Paul Messineo in Dark Horse but Messineo had to beat Morice McMillin in One Bad Kiwi. Rick Gauci’s Nitro Express took a very tight win over local hero Andrew Katavatis and the Beach Bomb Camaro. Bumblebee and Jake Donnelly ran a 5.780-second pass to defeat another local, Anthony Begley and the famous LA Hooker.
Round two saw a mixed round of results due to some damage for several funny cars including Emma Begley and Groove’n, Anthony Begley and LA Hooker and Dan Donnelly’s Avenger.
Shane Olive recorded the quickest pass of the second round, with a 5.542 at 417.72kph run, which meant Olive would take the maximum six points into the final. However, Nitro Express and Gauci was very close to Olive in terms of elapsed times and the pair of Chevs would be joined by a further three cars all on maximum points, Jake Donnelly in Bumblebee, Justin Walshe in Terminator and Paul Messineo aboard Dark Horse.
That left the crowd on the edge of their seats heading into the final round. The round started with the Beach Bomb and Andrew Katavatis achieving a 5.649 PB in a great race with Nathan Coles’ Gambler who recorded and impressive 6.019-seconds.
Morice McMillin saved his best race for last with his 5.626-second scorcher netting a third for the event!
Paul Messineo in Dark Horse and Jake Donnelly’s Bumblebee had a close side-by-side run but Messineo just clipped the timing box and his disqualification ensured Donnelly landed in one of the top two positions on the podium.
The only pairing that could demote Donnelly was winner of the Olive vs Gauci battle.
Gauci defeated Olive and his screaming 5.586-second pass in Nitro Express got the black Chev another event win.
The podium ended with Nitro Express in first, Bumblebee in second and One Bad Kiwi in third.
For a replay of the live event stream, head to outlawnitrofunnycars.com.au or facebook.com/outlawnitrofunnycars.
The series now heads to New Zealand for the first event of 2018, head to www.outlawnitrofunnycars.com.au for more event details.
Photo by Jay Treasure
