The opening 2024 drag race at Perth Motorplex brought the flame and thunder from Jet Dragsters and nitro match racing plus rounds of the local Top Doorslammer and Nitro Bike championships.
Pieter De Wit in Iron Horse Jet Dragster turned up the heat.
Tim Stewart rocked up for the first time in WA with his new ‘In A Frenzy’ Outlaw Nitro Funny Car, with James Kemp and Shannon Taylor also having their nitro altered out for some match racing.
Quickest pass of the event went to the ‘Grumpy’ fuel altered on Taylor with a 5.98.
Maurice Brennan is starting to get a handle of his new Top Doorslammer top qualifying with a 6.03. Then upsetting John Zappia in the A-Final with a 5.883 to 5.887.
Nitro Bike were off the pace in qualifying with Benny Stevens holding point on a 7.687. Stevens had the throttle twisted full track in round one however with a 6.612 on a solo, he backed that up with a 6.752 in the final.
Connor McClure had the ‘Slime Time’ turbo Torana cranking to top qualify in Top Comp on a 6.41, but it was Madison Brown who did the business in her Boston Strangler II to win on the night. Wild ride of the night went to Paul Carey when the chutes on his blown altered didn’t blossom sending him quickly into the Perth Motorplex beach.
The two local Comp Bike guns went head to head in the final, Ross Smith coming out the victor courtesy of a red light from number one qualifier Daniel Natalotto. In Supercharged Outlaws, Kasey McClure made it another win for the ladies as she took down Peter Appleby’s wild Torana with a 7.465 on a 7.44 in her dragster.
Alby Bakranich notched up another win in Top Sportsman with the Monte Carlo running down Geoff Chaisty in the final. A red light decided the Super Sedan final with a Glenn Sterkenburg picking a cherry off the tree with his VR ute handing the win to Goran Kojic. A fantastic .007 light from Angelo Locantro in the Modified final locked in his win over Neil Gannaway, and the win in the Super Street final was claimed by Craig Caton taking the win light in his HX Monaro over Tony Zaccaria. In Modified Bike, Brian Hotker punched through the gears on his Ducati in the final to hold off Simon Garbutt for the victory, and the luck went Nathan Townsend’s way in the Junior Dragster final when opponent Lucas Green broke out by one thou at the stripe.
Photos courtesy of Phil Reeve.
