Day two of Red CentreNATS 11 did not disappoint; we were able to swing past the show and shine, dirt drags, tarmac drag grudge racing, roll racing, doorslammers and heavy hitters qualifying – just so long as we could be everywhere at once.

It was a tough ask as to where to hit first; like the quality music festivals of old, there’s so much on across the ‘stages’, you’d have to be Vegemite to spread yourself around all the venues. Too.. much… action!

The Shannon Show and Shine at Lasseters was far from a repeat of yesterday; sure, there were some cars there the same, but plenty that weren’t, meaning it was time to take in the whole show again. We had a squiz indoors, too as the Street Machine Elite Shed wasn’t going to be there forever, and we wanted to lap up those babies one more time under lights before they were boosted for the arvo’s Yeperenye Street Parade through the Alice.

The Dirt Drag Racing at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame is a new addition to the programme, and a squiz at the event did not disappoint. Crazily enough, amongst the lifted rigs and AWD spooli-bois, a couple of deep-dish V8 monsters – a Jono Kelly’s iconic VK and Adam Styles’s chopped AP6 Valiant rolled through – aerating the soil like a John Deere tractor. An all-electric Ford F150 Lightning raised a few eyebrows – and plenty of dirt – as it dispatched the course time after time in complete silence.

We got back to Alice Springs Inland Dragway just in time to catch the Top Doorslammer Family Feud and the Heavy Hitter Qualifying, but my mind was blown by a strange little ute in the pits. Blown and nasty, the shape was weirdly familiar to my mental automotive filing system. It took about 30 seconds,
then I had it. I asked them if it was a Dodge Ramage. Bloke looked at me stunned. “You’re the only person who’s ever known what it was.” BOOM. That’s why they pay me the big bucks.

Time was awasting and we couldn’t talk Dodge Rampages all day as we were back to Alice in time for the Yeperenye Street Cruise. This is one of the highlights of the weekend; just where are you going to see a restored vintage car, a stock P5 LTD driven by a grannie, and a blown, injected V8 Suzuki Mighty Boy burnout rig driving in succession through the middle of town? As usual, the people of Alice came out in droves to see the drive, with my personal favourite being Jim McLaren’s insane HQ Monaro – ‘Envie’ – that was unveiled earlier this year at Rockynats. Jim will be vying for RCN Champ, but then again, so will Lee Povey in his twin turbo VL Calais.

Speaking of, we were soon back at the drags to see Lee do his thing, and do it he did for the third year on the trot, knocking off SA’s Anthony Raschella to take out the 8.00-8.99 bracket with an 8.043 run.

The 7-second bracket final was a repeat of last year, with Peter Coles’s LX hatch taking out Matt Abel’s ‘57, as was the 9-second final, with Dan Hodgins again pipping Gary Baker’s HR.

Mick Jury also two-from-two in his stunning HQ Monaro, this year beating out Rebecca Griffin’s VS ute.

And the Baney family had a successful night, with Ray Baney winning the 10-second bracket in his Compact Fairlane, and Matt Baney winning the 12-second bracket in his XD Falcon.

Full results below:

Above: The Zappias took out the Top Doorslammer Family Feud, with John Zappia dispatching Daniel Gregorini in the A-final and nephew Brodie Zappia taking out the B-final against Lisa Gegorini.