Red CentreNATS 2023 opens with a bang!

It is hard to believe that Red CentreNATS will be celebrating its 10 anniversary next year! This time in 2015, I was cruising around the streets of Alice Springs in my EJ, having road tripped up from Melbourne for the very first event.

And two years later, we were there in our thrash-built, twin-turbo LS powered Mazda MX-5, revelling in the freedom of being able to drive such a ridiculous car on the street with the blessings of the local authorties.

Since then, the event has gone from strength to strength. The burnout competition is one of the best in the land, the drag component has grown out of sight and the organisers keep refining and adding to the program.

This year, they added a Summernats-style Fringe Festival to the program for Thursday night. While the event was yet to officially kick off, the vibe was awesome and both pubs were pumping!

Scrutineering is a great time to get sneak peek at what lies in the store for the weekend.

Cruising is a big part of the Red CentreNATS experience, with normally-illegal cars being granted permits to cruise within certain zones and times if they meet a few guidelines. Cue Maccas runs! Note a certain Street Machine of the Year contender below and a two-door VE Commodore. Or is that a Monaro?

Friday night was burnout qualifying, and hoo boy! What a show. There were plenty of big names in the mix, including Peter Grmusa, Jake Myers (another Street Machine of the Year contender!) and Lynchy. Stephen Robson in SPOTTO57 did well to make the finals after doing an axle earlier in the day. The Pro

Pro Class Results

Jake Myers S1CKO
Kyle Douglas LUXIFER
Andrew Lynch LYNCHY
Jack Seaman LOOSEQ
Nathan Sutherland KILLASET
Jono Kelly 3FIVE5
Todd Stewart UNFAZD
Jay Chun Tie TINYTOWING
Ryan Lofts ORWHAT
Stephen Robson SPOTTO57

MORE Milwaukee SMOTY contender #6: Jake & Gar Myers’s 1966 Mustang

Open Class results

Aiden Leist JOYRDE
Justin Mckinnis MRCHOW
Pete Thomsen MY80XD
Frank Paesel RUB1OUT
Gilbert Kassebaum RUF008
Jeffrey McDonell GROUCH
Dylan Rowley HUNTER
Jarred Ridley YAH00N
Aaron Fleming IMP8NT
Kenton Klau
Ryan Campbell GRUMPY
Chris Prasad
Connor Totani LILRANGA
Jakwyn Totani
Marcus East PGYBNK
Michael Oregan SET2KILL
Jarrod Hayward VT2FRY
Stephen Goodwin
Tj Huish SMARTASS
Peter Barnes SACKED

All the qualifiers will be back on Sunday, battling it out for 2 x Burnout Masters tickets and 2 x Wildcard tickets (Pro Class) and 1 x Wildcard ticket (Pro Class Non-Qualifiers) to Street Machine Summernats 36 in January next year, as well as trophies and a stack of prize money.

Of course, Red CentreNATS is about a lot more than skids! The indoor and outdoor car shows kicked off today, along with grass driving events, the off-road course, grudge racing at Alice Springs Inland Dragway and much more. Not to mention the always-epic Street Parade and Heavy Hitters drags in the evening.