The inaugural BME WA Nitro Championship is now in the books, with Perth Motorplex fans having been treated to a spectacular series of nitro racing.
Western Australia’s local nitro teams wanted to create a series that would embrace all kinds of nitro vehicles. Six teams competed in the first season, which was run over three rounds.
Finishing on top of the points with a perfect record was Andrew Katavatis in the Beach Bomb (290 points). Katavatis and his team of dedicated nitro warriors showed supreme consistency throughout the series. They delivered some of the quickest runs of the season, including a personal best 5.486 on their final pass of the series. Katavatis has not yet lost a race in the BME WA Nitro Championship and has set himself up as a strong favourite for next season.
Finishing out the season strongly was the Northern Territory’s Matt Abel (180 points). After some problems limited Nitro Thunder to just 10 points in the opening round of the season, Abel and car owner Rory Taylor recovered beautifully with the quickest pass of the BME WA Nitro Championship history (5.427) at the Nitro Slam. In the final event, they won two out of three races to boost their points tally at just the right time.
Only just missing out on second place was Nathan Coles (170 points). Another driver from the Northern Territory, also steering for Rory Taylor, Coles was another to save his best for last with a series best 5.553 at the season-ending Nitro Championship. The Thumper Camaro proved a reliable weapon, and were it not for a couple of super-close losses, Coles could well have been standing second on the podium.
Just outside the top three was Michael Brooks (130 points) and the Nitro Mayhem front engine dragster. The rails can be pretty wild to get down the track and that was certainly the case for Brooks, who managed to tame the car to several five second runs this season.
Finishing up fifth was Shannon Taylor and the Aussie Digger (110 points). Taylor was a surprise package for the season with plenty of full pulls, just not so many win lights. His final run of the season, a 5.89 second pass, was perhaps his wildest as the parachutes failed to deploy and he had the dragster bouncing all the way through the braking area as he tried to get it stopped!
Last but not least was Anthony Begley, who had a tough last event but also reasons to smile. Begley ran a personal best 5.778, which should give the Dark Knight team a boost as they rebuild for next season.
The BME WA Nitro Championship is open to all nitro burning dragsters, funny cars and altereds. The series would like to welcome as many teams as possible for the 2021/22 season, so if you have ever wanted to compete in a nitro series – now is your chance! Whether you have a supercharged motor or you want to try injected nitro, this is the place to be.
For more information how to become a part of the series, email Rory Taylor at speed.torque@bigpond.com or James Rowland at james@wavehicles.com.au.
