John Zappia is licking his wounds this week after a Round 1 loss in the ANDRA Top Doorslammer Pro Series Round Three run at the annual Goldenstates last weekend, despite running three 5.8 second passes.
Zap came up against Ben Bray in a Round 1 match up that had the local crowd on edge, and young Bray recorded one of the biggest snatches of the meeting with some clever driving.
“I got beaten fair and square on reaction time” said Zap, “Congratulations to young Benny Bray – it took the quickest side by side pass in history for him to do it, but that’s the excitement of Top Doorslammer racing at its best”.
The huge crowd at the Perth Motorplex looked stunned and confused after the run, as Craig Pedley’s “Crusher” recorded the lower ET of 5.834 @ 245.23mph, but the green win light was on Bray’s board with a slower 5.880 @ 248.61mph. It was a reaction time of 0.087 from Bray that got him the win against Zap’s 0.140.
Earlier in the weekend Zap ran a gorgeous straight 5.881 @ 243.24mph in the first qualifier on Friday night, after most of the field had trouble getting down the track.
“I wanted to run a 5.7, so I hotted the “Crusher” up for Round 2, but the track could not hold the power and I blew the Mickey Thompson tyres off. So I went back to a safer tune and progressed with a quicker 5.858 @ 243.24mph third qualifier that put us third on the order behind Fabietti’s 5.844 and Judd’s 5.857. Not really where I wanted to be, as it gave me a Round 1 match up against Benny Bray – and he always digs deep to try and beat me”.
The event was won by local West Australian racer Robin Judd, who defeated a hurt Fabietti in the final.
“There is a lot more to this season yet, and we are still third in the Championship – so all is not lost. Some new higher performing parts have finally arrived that I was sort of counting on for this meeting that will go into the “Crusher” for local meetings here. We have four National Open meetings here to contest in Top Comp before the next round of Top Doorslammer. We are now running second in the Top Comp Championship here in Perth and we have a strong chance at this”.
“There are a lot of positives to this meeting even though we went out in the first round. The new Crusher race car is only nine runs old and we are still fine tuning the chassis, suspension and engine. We are quite excited at the potential that we have seen with this car and are looking forward to the remainder of the season”.
“A special thanks to our major Sponsors United Industries, who were at the event for the weekend. They presented us with an amazing coffee making machine that made life easier for the Zappia Racing Team to relax and enjoy the meeting”.
“Crusher” owner and Striker Crushing and Screening Director Craig Pedley and Chris Lane, one of the other Directors were a surprise and welcomed visitors to the meeting to watch Craig’s car compete its first round of the Championships. We hope to see more of them in the coming events.
Some interesting facts on Zappia Racing Top Doorslammer times:
“Zap’s Rat” and “Crusher” combined:
73 total passes of 5.999 or better
23 total passes of 5.899 or better
The pedigree of the new “Crusher” with only 9 full passes:
7 total passes of 5.999 or better - of those 5 have been 5.899 or better
1 pass of 6.005
Photos thanks to Robert James, courtesy of Steve Leijser
Zappia to compete in the Crusher Striker Monaro
John Zappia will race the "Crusher" HQ Monaro owned by Striker Crushing and Screening Director Craig Pedley this weekend at the annual Goldenstates Event - Round Three of the ANDRA Pro Series Top Doorslammer Championship - and is confident the team will perform strongly.
"This new car has performed to our expectations", said Zap at the Zappia Racing workshop this week, "Maybe more after winning it's first event last meeting and running a quick 5.832 and 244mph".
"Zap's Rat - the Striker Monaro is undergoing some modifications based on what we have learnt on the new car, and will be back shortly for competition".
"We have undertaken our usual maintenance program in preparation for this big event, with Graham Jones and the boys from Southside Engine Centre massaging various parts of the Hemi, and the crew making minor adjustments to the Santhuff suspension".
"The air should be good this weekend, which will help with low times and close racing. Top Doorslammer racing is a tough class, but we have a world class standard here in Perth for blown cars and anything could happen".
"We hope to put on our usual top performance for local sponsors including United Industries, who have staff and clients attending the two day event, and our national sponsor Fuchs Lubricants with their excellent products we use on both our race cars, other drag cars we are associated with, and in our street cars".
Fans are reminded that qualifying starts on Friday night at 6.00pm WST, with qualifier 2 at 8.00pm and the final qualifier at 9.49pm - so get there early.
Eliminations are on Saturday, with Round 1 at 6.00pm WST, Round 2 at 8.00pm and the Final at 10.00pm. Don't forget the jackets, as the Perth Motorplex can get quite chilly this time of year.
