Six new ANDRA national records have been recorded between the recent South Coast 660 and Festival State Nationals events, held at South Coast Raceway (January 6-7) and Dragway at The Bend (January 13-14) respectively.
At the South Coast 660, Steve Norman and Edge Mallis set three 660ft records between them, as follows:
- Steve Norman – B/SMA new ET record – 5.257 seconds (was 5.279)
- Steve Norman – B/SMA new speed record – 130.20mph (was 129.53)
- Edge Mallis – DD/CB new ET record – 5.161 (was 5.279)
At the Festival State Nationals, Chris Allen and Matt Forbes set three 1320ft records between them, as follows:
- Chris Allen – AA/CB new ET record – 7.096 seconds (was 7.123)
- Chris Allen – AA/CB new speed record – 198.69mph (was 180.36)
- Matt Forbes – D/AA – 7.671 secs (was 7.700 secs)
At the first national event of 2024, Mallis and Norman both reset their records as part of event winning performances in Portland.
Mallis took out the win aboard his Kawasaki H2R after top qualifying earlier in the event, with the Moonee Ponds (VIC) racer taking the win from 2022/2023 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series Champion, Joe Khoury.
“It was a great weekend; we were actually de-tuning it and we still ended up breaking records. It worked out really well,” Mallis said.
“In the final for some reason it lost a bit of air and would not shift gears, but Joe red lit so we still got the win – sometimes you have got to be lucky and when it happens, you have to take it! Thank you to the crew – Daniel Fox, Mike Darcy, and Mick Donaghue – and to Blaze Hansen who was tuning the bike from Queensland.
“It all went faultless – we ran 4.9 on a 5.27 national record and we were still trying to de-tune it to slow it down, so everything was great.”
At Dragway at the Bend the very next weekend, Chris Allen not only rewrote the record books for his class but also top qualified and then went on to win Competition Bike – taking the victory over Sam Scerri aboard his Suzuki Macri Special, while Matt Forbes broke through for a national event win in his fifth national championship bracket of Competition Eliminator.
“I was absolutely stoked with the outcome. We just go to have fun and go racing, so to Top Qualifier and get the MPH and ET records and then also get the win, it is a great achievement from all involved, and everyone on the team is just so happy,” Allen said.
“I want to say thank you to my team – Michael Macri, Warrick Pike, Noel Watson, Joel Melbourne and Kim Hall – I wouldn’t be able to do this without them. I had people come from Queensland to help me as well as a few people from Perth. One of my mates had an important business meeting and still rocked up to help. I am super grateful for all of their support.
“The bike performed well all weekend. We knew we had something special when we did a test on Friday and went 7.27 at 195mph in the heat of the day.
“The track preparation was absolutely amazing, well done to all of the officials and all of the volunteers over the weekend. The track was absolutely faultless, it was set up great and the prep was awesome.
“To run over 205mph twice was just astonishing, especially as the bike had only been 198mph before the weekend and that was in 2016. We ran over 200mph four times out of nine passes over the event which was just great, and then to come away with the win was just even more rewarding.
“I want to say a special thanks to Benny Stevens and his team for a warm welcome into their marquee over the weekend also, and to ‘Single’ from Attitude Racing for taking my bike and stuff over there – we wouldn’t have been able to do what we have done without all their help.”
The next opportunity for resetting ANDRA national records will come at South Coast Raceway’s South Coast Rumble event, which will be held on February 3-4, 2024.
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