Life in the ‘hermit kingdom’ continues to be pretty good if you’re a drag racer, as yet another season has begun on time despite the global pandemic.
The first round of the Summer Slam was the highlight of the night as John Zappia claimed the honours.
In Top Comp, the SCM Engines team with Moreno Gullotto driving returned to the track and had their Toyota Soarer flying from the get-go and took the win with a record breaking 6.668 second pass to edge out Top Comp rookie Connor McClure.
In the Dragon Bikes Nitro Bike bracket, Greg Durack had his Kawasaki on song and managed to stay head of Wayne McGuinness, whose Harley started to head towards the wall, causing him to lift to avoid contact.
Super Comp had a great field with 10 entries on the grounds, and in the end it was the record setting Jamie Chaisty who took the honours over Graeme Simms when Simmo left too soon, leaving a red light on the tree. Jamie wasn’t the only one to reset his record in the competitive bracket as Dean Dawes’ RX3 reset the RR/API marks to 7.311 seconds and upped the speed to 310.49 km/h (192.93mph).
The Friday’s Seadoo Comp Bike bracket was an all Suzuki final that saw Ross Smith take the win over Ross Green with both riders only a few hundredths off their respective track records. Meanwhile earlier in the day Daniel Natalotto reset the D/SB Record to 10.178 on his ZX6-R Ninja and Ross Green reset the B/CB ET to 7.962.
Specialized Towing Outlaw Radial lived up to its usual exciting heads up style of racing and even though the field was smaller than usual the performances were right up there with the best. Kevin Boulton had a mad last minute thrash to get his Pontiac ready for the event and it paid off going all the way to the final and taking the win over Ben Pisconeri.
Performance Towing Supercharged Outlaws saw Peter Appleby take the win over Alan Mahnkoph all the way from Tom Price in an awesome side by side pass that saw both drivers breakout, with Peter’s 6.780 (6.79 dial in) breaking out by the least over Alan’s 6.656 (6.68 dial in).
Top Sportsman saw Johnny Brecich return to racing and he picked up from where he left off, taking the win over Paul Downe.
In Modified, Darryl Treasure had his Cleveland Express altered on rails all day and took out the win over Jeff Acton in the final.
Enviro Exhaust Super Sedan is anotherbBracket showing promise this season with a healthy field of racers battling it out, but when it came down the final Matt Gullotto ran a dead on 8.98 (8.98 dial in) to take the win over Stuart Moorhouse.
Perth Harley Davidson Modified Bike was another hotly contested bracket and in the end, Ian Read got his Hayabusa over the line ahead of Simon Garbutt’s Honda.
WA Suspensions Super Street is always well supported, and this season is no different however there were some upsets in the early rounds seeing some big guns going out early. The final was a one-sided affair as Bernie Ellerby’s Torana refused to start in his semi final bye run, denying him the chance to race Australian Super Street Champion Paul Garbellini in the final.
Enviro Exhaust Junior Dragster is well and truly seeing a resurgence with 19 teams entering the bracket for this event. The final saw the two top racers from last season match up yet again and it was Brodie Zappia that hit a dead on 8.12 (8.12 dial in) to take first blood over Zara Board.
The next event is the 47th Goldenstate Championships featuring Round 3 of the Australian Top Doorslammer Championship and Round 1 of the Australian Top Fuel Motorcycle Championship along with Round 7 of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series on November 26-27!
Enjoy the photo gallery below thanks to Jay Treasure.
