BRETT BATTERSBY

Machine: BLWNLUX, 1987 TOYOTA HILUX Engine: 540CI DART BIG-BLOCK, 8/71 BLOWER

BRETT Battersby won Burnout Masters in 2015 and he’s been at the pointy end of the pad ever since. From Portland, NSW, he’s been skidding his Hilux for most of the 20 years he’s owned it, and has also had fun spinning the wheels of a couple of Commodores and a blown Holden V8-powered Mazda 1000 ute. Brett’s ascent to the big time coincided with the implementation of his nasty 8/71-blown, 540-cube Dart donk, which can slurp up to 100 litres of methanol in a single skid. “I never won a show for the first 14 years but there were two events I wanted to win,” Brett explains. “The first is Kandos, because that’s near where I’m from, and the second is Burnout Masters. I won them both, but Kandos still places higher in my pecking order. Don’t get me wrong, Summernats is incredible, but I’ve been going to Kandos since I was a kid and always wanted to win that.”

A non-drinker and a family man, Brett says he gets his kicks tinkering, and he’s got help close at hand. “My missus and my kids give me a hand,” he says. “There’s not much to do ’round Portland!”