28fastlane
FIRST TIME
WINNERSARE
GRINNERS
The northern swing to open the 2018 / 2019 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series saw a number of first-time winners ‘ crowned ’ across the Nitro Up North and Desert Nationals events at the Hidden Valley Drag Strip and Alice Springs Inland Dragway .
Fastlane Magazine caught up with them to find out what they thought about it all .
MARK TATTINGHAM
MODIFIED BIKE WINNER , NITRO UP NORTH
“ My wife makes most of my trophies live downstairs but this one is going in the lounge room , I don ’ t care what she says ,” the Allicross Engineeringsupported racer laughed .
“ This is my first Christmas tree , I have been trying the last three years and we were getting knocked out in the first round , so it is pretty happy days that we have gotten through .”
THEO KARAMANIDIS
SUPER STREET WINNER , NITRO UP NORTH
“ This feels awesome , I have been trying to get one of these for three years !” Karamanidis said .
“ It was a special weekend for us too being the John Sorensen Memorial – John Sorensen was our original crew chief and he started Beat the Heat . He died 11 years ago ( on the Saturday of the event ) so it was quite good to take the win on this day .
“ We had a good start to the weekend , the car was really consistent which it always is . We had good qualifying times , the weather was good to us , and I can ’ t complain about how it all unfolded . Qualifying was good and ( on Saturday ) all of our runs were pretty consistent up to the last run which was good and we actually went a bit quicker .
“ I have to thank my team from Beat the Heat , they are a great bunch of people to do this with , as well as our sponsors SCF Constructions , Penrite Oils , Repco and Toward Zero .”
JESS VOIGT
MODIFIED WINNER , NITRO UP NORTH
“ I saw ( runner-up Warren Bull ) next to me so I was a bit unsure ( if I had it ), but I was very happy to come home with the win ,” Voigt explained while thanking Matt ’ s Paint N Panel , Dear Lyla , Sherwood Estates and Mark Lewis Signs for their support .
“ This is pretty exciting , it is my first Christmas tree !
“ I wasn ’ t really expecting it , it is a good win . We were pretty consistent all weekend , all of our qualifiers were pretty spot on and consistent and then on Saturday again we were running very consistently which was good .
“ I never like to go into a competition expecting to win , that is my mindset , I don ’ t want to get my hopes up I guess , but it was a great finish for the weekend .”
NIKOLAS KARANOVIC
SUPER STREET WINNER , DESERT NATIONALS
“ The weekend started out well , it was looking like a really interesting weekend and everyone was very competitive so I knew I had to bring my A-game ,” Karanovic said .
“ Having the qualifier ( on Sunday morning ) helped me get my head around the tree and really focused in on it . In the first round I came out and cut a good light and ran close to my dial-in too – there is not much more you can really do and it was a really close