John Zappia and his Zappia racing Team conducted testing at the local Nitro Funny Car event at the Perth Motorplex on 15th March, with the Striker Top Doorslammer and Striker Super Street Commodore testing new equipment. Zap has taken another step up in engine power, and is going through the chassis and clutch set-up process to get the car arrow straight and consistent.
"We made some suspension changes and tried a new batch of clutch plates this meeting" said Zap, "The last batch were defective and led us on a wild goose chase for several meetings. I am not satisfied to just run the car as it is as a consistent five second car, as several opponents like Stevens and Benny Bray have stepped up and getting close. The Americans ran 5.8's this week in their Pro-mods in outstanding weather conditions, and we have to be on our game and keeping developing and testing to keep up."
"Craig Pedley was trying out the new 18 inch Mickey Thompson Street ET radials on the back of the GTS, and several engine changes have been made to try and get some consistency so Craig can fine tune his driving skills. This is an awesome street car really - running 11 second passes in a 4,300 pound car that he drives every day to work and back."
Zappia was entered in the local Top Comp bracket, and first compulsory qualifier at 6pm resulted in a pedalling 6.580et @ 231.36mph pass as the car headed right on the hit. Pedley meantime rattled off an 11.784et @ 116.27 first round pass on an 11.75 dial in after a perfect 0.000 light in the GTS to defeat Kennedy who red lit.
Pedley went through to round three with a 11.800et @ 116.73 win on a 11.68 dial in over King who red lit, and Zap took the win over the AA/D Dragster of Croker with a pedalling 6.193et @ 215.82mph. The win was not enough for a finals birth, so the Zappia Racing crew turned the car around for a test pass later in the night.
Pedley went out in Round 3 with a red lighting 11.852et @ 116.42mph on an 11.68 dial in, against O'Niel's 11.878et on an 11.0 dial in. The Striker Monaro came out later in the night and rattled of a 6.11et pass with a double pedal by Zap. "Well I am really happy with the days racing, despite the results on the board. These new clutch plates are much better, and our clutch guy Gerry will have them sorted real quick now. The car is handling much better now with the changes I made in the last week, and feels stronger and more robust on the track. The car was turning the tyres pretty hard on those runs, yet I was able to recover quickly and put in reasonable times."
The Zappia Racing Team will run another local event on 5th Apr 2008 where the USA Jet Dragsters will run at the Perth Motorplex, before heading east to run the remaining two rounds of the 2007/2008 ANDRA Top Doorslammer Championship.
