Red Centre Nats

RED CENTRE NATS 5 IN ALICE SPRINGS PROMISED A WEEKEND OF SMOKY BURNOUTS, HEAVY-HITTING DRAGS, SHOW-STOPPING RIDES AND CRAZY CRUISING, AND IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT

- Dave Carey

THERE’S something serene about the sky above Alice Springs. Casting my eyes towards the cloudless blue flanked by the rusty red of the MacDonnell Ranges, I spot a trio of wedge-tailed eagles wheeling silently on the thermal drafts. Suddenly, the silence and wonder are broken by 1000hp of 440-cubic-inch Windsor, grunting with ferocious anger. Damo Kemp is behind the wheel of his 1964 Fairlane gasser, ‘Funderbolt’, and is grinning like a lunatic. “Are we going to Macca’s?” he yells over the deafening din. We sure are Damo, we sure are.

That brief moment sums up the craziness of Red CentreNATS. Set against the picturesque backdrop of Australia’s Dead Heart, 700 show cars, dragsters, burnout rigs and buggies congregate, and are welcome to travel Alice Springs’ public roads just so long as they pass a basic scrutineering check.

Although festivities officially kick off on Friday with an evening of fire and fury on the burnout pad, experienced punters know to fuel up during the calm before the storm. The Krazy Train Diner offers an unofficial welcome party on Thursday night, supplying succulent burgers to travel-drained entrants and spectators alike, the car park a throng of rods, customs, rock ’n’ roll music and stray lettuce.

Friday sees the bulk of the entrants filter in from across the nation. Scrutineering at Lasseters Casino is a hive of activity. It’s there we come across Chook, Luke and Craig who have road-tripped from Whyalla in a seemingly busted-arse XB Falcon wagon. “We dragged it off a salt pan,” says Chook, aka Anthony Fowler. “It runs Luke’s 351 Windsor and EB Falcon five-speed, Craig’s Bathurst Globes, and a pair of my jeans for a dashpad,” he adds.