THE drags will be bigger and better than ever at this year’s Red CentreNATS, 3-5 September in Alice Springs. Heavy hitters will be duking it out for $37,000 worth of cash and prizes in good old heads-up racing.

The action kicks off on Saturday 4 September at Alice Springs Inland Dragway in five categories, using pro tree with a Chicago Shootout format and a final for each class. Rather than running dial-in, racers will nominate an index to run against in any of the 7-, 8-, 9-, 10- and 11-second categories. The first car over the line wins, but if a competitor breaks out of their bracket – for example, a car in the eight-second class runs a 7.99 – they forfeit the win.

There’ll be $21,000 cash and 16 grand’s worth of Garrett turbo vouchers on offer, with the winners of the seven-, eight- and nine-second categories taking home $5000 cash each and a Garrett voucher. Second place for each class will be awarded $1000. That’s a lot of moolah up for grabs!

For those whose cars are not quite so quick, there’ll also be dial-your-own drag racing on Saturday and Sunday in two classes: Pro (quicker than 12 seconds) and Street (12 seconds and slower). Testing and grudge racing will take place on the Saturday, with finals on Sunday. The winner of each class will pocket $500 cash, with $100 for each runner-up.

To be a part of any of the drag racing events, you only need to be a Red CentreNATS entrant – which right now is only $75 for you, your car and a mate. So 75 bucks could see you take home $5000 cash – that’s a pretty sweet deal!

Even if you do strike out in the racing, the $75 entry still gets you access to everything else Red CentreNATS has to offer over the three days, including the Saturday night street parade, motorkhana, cruising, go-to-whoa, show ’n’ shine, burnouts and heaps more.

Being that Red CentreNATS drags are run under ANDRA sanction, all cars and racing licences must comply with ANDRA regulations. Your RCN entry includes the necessary ANDRA day licence needed to run; however, it is up to competitors to ensure both they and their car are ANDRA-legal for the speeds they intend to run.