“You think it’s easy until you have 1100 horsepower on your arse and you are going around this tiny little pad and trying not to back off,” Michael Pratten said when asked about the skill level it takes to compete with Australia’s best burnout artists.
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The 34-year-old Goulburn mechanic will be competing in his first Summernats Burnout Masters competition after qualifying at the Burnout All Stars in Brisbane in October.
With 32 of the best who have qualified in burnout events around the country, Mr Pratten said the event is essentially the grand final of the sport.
“It’s the last one of the season so everyone wants a spot there,” he said.
With a lifelong passion for all things auto, Mr Pratten got into the sport five years ago.
His car, a heavily modified 2002 Holden Commodore VX SS, hasn’t seen a public road for five years, and “never will again”.
“We drove it from Batemans Bay – it was still registered,” he said.
The car, which Mr Pratten describes as sporting “full burnout trim” has had the wheel wells “tubbed”, four linked nine inch racing suspension installed, has been converted to a manual with a T400 transmission and has had a methanol mechanically injected 404ci LS iron block engine installed.
“It is methanol mechanically injected,” he said.
The engine, which was imported, replaced the stock standard aluminium block which allows too much flexibility when it comes to the boost.
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In the last five years, Mr Pratten and his photographer wife Liz have been all over the country competing and shooting– Sydney, Cairns, Brisbane and Stawell.
This year they will even head down to Tasmania for the Tassie Nats and over to Perth for the Ultimate Burnout Challenge (UBC).
Mr Pratten said the appreciation of the sport depends on the crowd, who regularly line up with earplugs eager to get covered in rubber and smoke.
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“Some people look at the car and think ‘that is stupid’, but then when you go to an event like Summernats with the connoisseurs around they all think it is insane,” he said.
It may look like show pony behavior to some, but there are very clear rules for judging the best burnout, including smoke (instant, constant, quality), quantity of tyres blown and crowd engagement.
Deductions are given for driving off the designated burnout pad, for fire in the car, for touching a wall and for the car becoming unable to drive off the pad.
“Constant RPM is a big thing because when you take your foot off the pedal they know you have got tangled up,” he said.
“You need a big set of gonads really because you can’t always see where you are going.”
While there is $15,000 up for grabs for the first place event, Mr Pratten said any money won goes straight back into the vehicle.
With expenses such as parts and tyres it pay to have sponsors.
“We have some good sponsors like Studio 4 and Crookwell Tyre Service help us out,” he said.
When Mr Pratten drives out at the first round of the Burnout Masters on Saturday afternoon he will do so with his engine builder Chad Mulley from Pro Street Engines in Picton.
Although it is essentially a competition, Mr Pratten said the burnout community is “one big family”
“We are always helping each other with parts and it is pats on the back all round so it is really good,” he said.
“It is different from any other form of motor sport.”
Mr Pratten will take to the pad in the Burnout Masters at 4pm on Saturday at Summernats 31 in Canberra.
If he is successful, he will compete in the finals on Sunday.
You can watch a video of Mr Pratten in his Commodore at last year’s Summernats here.