The Nitro Max machines turned on a spectacular night of racing at the Perth Motorplex for the Battle of The Beach event. With five nitro burning animals for the return of the Nitro Max series in Perth it was a mix of funny cars, altereds and FEDs, and it rained five second ETs.
Andrew Katavatis started the five second blitz in round one with the Beach Bomb’s funny car first showing in two years cranking out a 5.61 round one win over James Kemp’s 5.99 with his nitro altered. Katavatis dropped the low ET mark to a 5.543 in round two defeating the ‘In A Frenzy’ Oldmobile funny car of Tim Stewart. Shannon Taylor romped to a 5.76 in the same round with his nitro altered over the FED of George Separovic and Kemp continued his five second streak with a 5.82 solo blast.
In the final round Kemp took down Separovic in the B Final with a 5.83 and A-Final was a cracker with Taylor taking out Katavatis on a holeshot 5.77 to 5.56. Katavatis revealing the nitro Hemi broke a intake valve at 3/4 track triggering the shut down system in the final, so how quick would have the run been!
In the Blown Alcohol bracket which featured anything as long as it was blown and burning methanol saw Nigel Johnson on top with his Top Alcohol Dragster with a 5.91 after qualifying. Johnson kept the performance up defeating Maurice Brennan’s Top Doorslammer in the final with a 5.73.
Connor McClure again top qualified with the Slime Time Torana in Top Comp, and again Madison Brown went home with the winner’s trophy in the Boston Strangler II BB/Funny Car. McClure grabbed the B-Final win over Moreno Gullotto and still leads the track championship for the bracket, while Brown would not be chased down by Andrew Coles’ Top Doorslammer in the A-Final – 6.46 (6.45IN) to 6.09 (5.68IN) – further to the loss, there were troubles for Coles in the shut down that saw the Corvette head to the beach.
Michael Buckley stuck the two-stepping Rotary RX7 on pole in Super Comp with a 7.02, but it was Emma Robinson with the bracket win at the end of the night in her C/DA dragster against Matthew Puglia who had start line dramas. In a flip-flop of the last event for the Comp Bike final, it was Ross Smith who this time lit up the red light in the final returning the last event favour and handing the win to Daniel Natalotto.
In Supercharged Outlaws Kasey McClure was looking for back to back event wins in her dragster but found too much performance breaking out at the stripe, little did she know the race was hers with Norbert Claite all over the track narrowly keeping the Camaro off the wall in the other lane. Alby Bakranich did claim back to back wins in Top Sportsman and it was his fourth win of the season in a show of dominance from the Monte Carlo driver, capping the final off with a .003 light to defeat Yvette Gregg’s nitrous XE Fairmont.
Outlaw Radial was back on the card for this event and Stephen Lundy had a good night in his Mustang, top qualifying and knocking off Brian Hicks in the final to win the event. Paul Garbellini returned to his winning ways with his LS powered dragster in Modified, after winning the first two rounds of the season went through a bit of a dry spell before wrapping up the event win here against Neil Gannaway. It all went right for Kathy Regan on the night in Super Sedan, grabbing her first win in the VK for season defeating Luke Guppy’s Chevy Vega in the final. A 9.332 on a 9.32 dial in lit the win light up for Simon Garbutt in the Modified Bike final against Geoff Smith increasing his lead in the track championship. In Super Street last start winner Craig Caton pushed the tree too hard and came up snake eyes with a red light gifting the final win to John Szabo. That wasn’t the case in Junior Dragster as Nathan Townsend powered on to back to back wins sending him rocketing into championship contention, Brock Ferguson was runner-up of the event earning enough points to take the track championship lead.
Next hit out for everyone will be the Westernationals.
Photos courtesy of Phil Reeve.
