Perth Motorplex’s nitro summer continued with Nitro Nation to close out January, featuring the Nitro Max and Summer Slam series’
Shannon Taylor in Rory Taylor’s Speed Torque nitro altered closed the night out in the Nitro Max series with a 5.88 to 6.49 win over fiery Tim Stewart funny car. Taylor overcame a first round holeshot loss – 5.74 to a 5.61 – against Michael Brook’s FED to rebound back into the final with 5.66 win against the funny car of Nathan Coles in round two.
Five cars rolled up for the local WA Top Doorslammer Summer Series, that had a few cars missing who had headed east for the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship. Maurice Brennan top qualified with a 5.98 in his freshly built VT Commodore ahead of the striking pink Charger driven by Shane Catalano.
Mechanical mayhem ensued in racing with Brennan and Moresby due to race off in the A-Final but neither car could fire up.
On two wheels in Nitro Bike, Ricky Wood top qualified with a 7.06 but was unable to start for round one. Benny Stevens got the Harley cranking once again carding a 6.69 win over Mark Drew’s 6.84 in round one. Les Holden knocked up a win against Kevin Gummow to meet Stevens in the final, where he didn’t have the horsepower to match a 6.62 delivered by Stevens.
Madison Brown clean swept Top Comp in the Boston Strangler BB/FCA funny car, top qualifying with a 6.63 against a 6.45 index. Russell Ladbrook had the task of running the funny car down in the final, but Brown’s 6.51 (6.45IN) held off a storming 5.87 (5.81IN) from the Ladbrook AA/Altered for the win. Brown will now head east, chasing the Summit Racing Sportsman Series Championship at Mildura’s Sunset Strip.
It was rotary power that conquered Super Comp, Michael Buckley’s RR/SM RX7 qualified second with a 7.13 under the 7.16 index just behind Rob Gaikhorst’s C/G 200SX. A round three loss for Gaikhorst against Buckley, saw the rotor through to the money run against Jayde Robinson’s C/DA dragster. Despite a tardy reaction, Buckley still had enough power to drive around the dragster in the final with a 7.15, and take the event win. Even though he top qualified in Comp Bike, Daniel Natalotto couldn’t keep his winning streak alive after chucking in a red light in round two. The A/AB of Ross Smith and Phil Patton’s DD/CB would fight out the all-Suzuki final, with Paton trumping at the stripe on a 7.78 (8.44IN) against Smith’s 8.32 (8.61IN).
It was all about the ladies in the Supercharged Outlaws final. Jessica Mullins was somewhat fortunate with a win against a better reacting Kasey McClure who had pushed the ET to hard and broke out. In Top Sportsman, Alby Bakranich’s string of finals continued, and he capped this one of with a win light defeating Paul Downe with a tight 7.935 (7.93DI).
The Outlaw Radial numbers are growing, and racing over the full quarter which is not the normal for the radial scene, Stephen Lundy’s Mustang top qualified with a 8.25. Lundy went on and took the event winner’s trophy home, outgunning Kevin Boulton in the final with a 7.94 to 8.12 in the heads up class.
The ‘Cleveland Express’ altered of Darryl Treasure did the job again in Modified. Treasure chalking up another win for iconic West Aussie car, this time against Rachel Gannaway’s dragster in the final. A couple of killer reaction times in the Super Sedan final (.015 at .009) had Nick Panagopoulos and Jodi Thorstensen going hard at it to the stripe where both racers broke out. Panagopoulos went under their targets by the least amount to earn the win.
Paul Nieuwhof was back to his winning ways in Modified Bike beating Owen Rose in the final. Super Street was won by Ashleigh Wroe against a breaking out – by a mere hundredth – Steph Gullotto. And in Junior Dragster it was the Chucky themed Toy Gory Junior of Lucas Green going home as event champion after opponent Brock Moresby missed a chance of back to back event wins with a break out.
Gallery courtesy of Phil Reeve.
