John Zappia presented his Zappia Racing Team at the Perth Motorplex for the opening meeting of the 2008/2009 season, and was pleased with the runs and data collected ahead of the Goldenstates Championships in two weeks.
“Round two of the Top Doorslammer Championship at the Goldenstates is an important event to us as a team, and this weekends testing of new components was vital in setting baselines in our setup” said Zap. “We are third in the ANDRA Championship on 40 points, behind leader Benny Bray and second place Deno both on 45 points, so this next meeting will set up an advantage for the winner”.
The Striker Monaro completed four passes on the day in Top Comp, the first pass blew the tyres off causing Zap to pedal and run through for a 6.629et @ 232.55mph. The crew completed all the necessary clutch and tune adjustments, and a clean straight 6.088et @ 234.37mph was the great result.
“That run was satisfying, as we have incorporated quite a few changes in many areas, and the car ran great with plenty left in it. We tweaked the tune a little for the next run, and ran a 6.037et @ 236.84mph pass that got us third in the qualifying list of 11 cars, 0.463 seconds under our handicap index of 6.500”.
First round of eliminations was up against Debbie O’Rourke in the AA/FC Funny Car who was on a 6.51 handicap index, but not having gone under her index so far on the meeting.
“We wanted to progress normally in our tuning , as we would on a normal Top Doorslammer meeting – which meant attempting a five second pass to ensure a win. Unfortunately the track temp was a little low, and I overpowered the track on the hit. I pedaled, and maybe even a little aggressively, as the car headed towards the centre line and hit a timing cone putting us out of the race”.
“I am pleased with the days racing though – our engine is producing the power and proving reliable, and the chassis is just great now. We have enough data to be very confident for Round 2 of racing, and building on our Championship winning last season”.
“It’s always harder to maintain your Championship status these days with such stiff competition, than it is to push towards one. Our competitors have discovered combinations that have gone five seconds in Round 1, so we have had to work extra hard in developing solutions to produce quicker results”.
“Many thanks go to our hard working crew and volunteers, who work tirelessly preparing the car and devoting their time on race day. We have a larger setup now, so logistics takes up much more time as well as setting up marquees and infrastructure. I hope to reward these many people, and our sponsors with exciting drag racing, and wins on the track”.
