Katanning champion powers to red dirt victory in late model

Australian late-model champion Kye Blight stormed to an impressive win in the Wild West Red Dirt Rumble at Kalgoorlie International Speedway on Saturday night.

Blight, who hails from Katanning, was one of 17 drivers who attended the trip east and he was straight on the money as he set a track record during his qualifying time with his lap time of 14.561sec.

He won the opening heat race, bettering the one-lap track record he set earlier in the night with a 14.506sec. time and then in his second heat again smashed the clock.

Blight finished second to Matt Nylander in that heat but in the process recorded a new track record of 14.480.

In the 30-lap feature race, Blight took control from the drop of the green flag and was challenged more than once by a persistent Nylander, who at one stage levelled up with him in lapped traffic.

But Blight held his nerve and survived two restarts to pull away and win the feature race by 6.623sec. over Nylander while Jason Oldfield came third.