The Perth Motorplex drag racing season begins anew this Saturday with the Grand Opening event on and Western Australia's best supercharged cars headlining the show.

A total of 217 racers have pre-entered for the event with Top Comp and Supercharged Outlaws showing strong fields.

Twelve cars have entered for Top Comp and the racers are amongst the toughest ever assembled at the Motorplex. John Zappia, the current Australian Top Doorslammer championship leader, will be amongst them, getting in valuable runs ahead of the next round of the championship in December. He will provide fierce competition as he searches for more 5sec. times but won't have things all his own way with rivals including Aaron Deery's dragster which is carrying more power this season and John Napier whose Funny Car ran near record times towards the end of last season.

Then there is the dark horse of Rob Pilkington. His Force Equipment Monte Carlo Funny Car was brought in during last season and he has been coming to grips with the huge amounts of power the car has using a supercharged V8 race engine.

"We're not up to speed one hundred per cent yet but we've been keeping it all in one piece and safe," he said. "Tyre shake has been our biggest issue but after going the wrong way with the clutch tune up we think we have got rid of it now."

Tyre shake is a violent phenomenon that can occur to the big, low pressure tyres drag cars run and literally shakes the whole car.

Pilkington is targeting some "out the back door" runs at the first event and he thinks if this can be accomplished then he can also achieve his first 5sec. pass.

"We should have half a chance to be winning the event with those sort of numbers," he said.

After coming from a sedan background, Pilkington says the Funny Car is a lot more aggressive to drive. Funny Cars use a centre-steer chassis, with the driver sitting almost on top of the rear axle, and a carbon fibre body

"The sedans are fast but in a solid-suspension Funny Car you can feel the ride a lot more," he said.