Poor Saturday weather meant a Sunday replay for the Shannons Powerpalooza at Perth Motorplex, an all in one event that included the opening rounds of the drag racing and speedway track championships.
Kelvin Lyle proved strongest in a wild day of Top Comp on the drag strip, where many teams struggled to make it down the track.
Lyle’s Top Doorslammer qualified in number one position with a 6.29sec. time and then defeated Frank Taylor in the final round. Pedalling five second runs were the order of the day for the Ford Mustang, which has a John Zappia engine combo under the front clip.
“We have changed a few things so we are trying to get them all to work at the moment,” he said. “None of our passes were clean runs with the car having tyre shake soon after launching, so that’s something we are working on.
“It’s good to get a win in the new car and also to have the quickest time and fastest speed overall for the day.”
Errol Quartermaine launched his championship defence in fine fashion with a win in Super Comp over Brett Glover, while Daniel Natalotto claimed the victory in Competition Bike against Wayne Patterson.
Natalotto said some adjustments to the ride height of his BMW made the difference.
“I had a theory about lifting the rear ride height of my bike to shift the centre of gravity forward to help my launches and it turns out it is working,” he said. “The bike is definitely going in the right direction.”
Others standing in victory circle at day’s end included Alby Bakranich (Top Sportsman), Nicholas Wroe (Modified), Nick Panagopoulos (Super Sedan), Dean Dawes (Modified Bike), Andy Oorschot (Super Street) and Alanah Cope (Junior Dragster).
Panagopoulos in particular enjoyed a career day out, recording three personal best times across the event.
“We had our backs to the wall after our second qualifying run on Saturday before the rain,” he said. “The car was unstable on launch and going hard to the right. We went away, made a few changes, came back on Sunday and ended up with three PBs with a best of 9.019 and a win in an awesome final race (against Yvette Gregg). We are absolutely ecstatic with today’s achievements.”
Check out the gallery below thanks to Jay Treasure. To purchase images or prints, email jattyt@hotmail.com.
