3rd Feb 2007 - Nitro Funny Car Meeting - Perth Motorplex.
Local Round for Striker Monaro
Zappia Racing fronted for one more test meeting at the Perth Motorplex, before taking the Striker Monaro on the long 48 hour haul across the huge Australian continent for Top Doorslammer Championship Round 4 on February 16 - 17 2007 for the Summernationals at Western Sydney International Dragway, NSW.
It was a sweltering hot summer day in Perth, with 40 degree heat that had the crew drinking bottled water by the gallon. Track temperature was an issue, and a good reason to practice and get valuable data for future race days in similar conditions.
Talking to John Zappia later in the pits after the event about how the car went he said "The car went pretty well in the first run, going 6.168et on 134 degrees F track temp in really hot conditions. Next run we tried a little harder but the car went for the centerline and I had to peddle it through for a 6.40et. We came out for the first round, and it had cooled off, so we gave it a bit more. The car went 6.20 but we crossed the centerline at the top end, hit one of the cones and cracked the front of the car."
"We found out later that on the previous Nitro Funny Car run, the Greene Machine had kicked three rods out and put oil and parts all over the track. We saved the car luckily, but we found it disappointing that we had to run on an oily surface, especially when the car went dead straight in the first half of the track. It was a little quicker than the 6.16 - probably would have been a 6.12. But that's the way it goes." said an obviously shaken John Zappia.
Looking forward to the Summernationals, Zap commented: "We will probably keep this engine combo in for Sydney, and keep the 5 second motor as a spare at this stage. Hopefully we will put that one in when we come back to Perth for Round 5 at the Westernationals, and we will see if we can run some more fives."
"For Sydney we will put some fresh Mickey Thompson slicks on, and go out and see if we can run some 6 "O"'s again. Sydney has been good to us and we have had good luck there. We really only had one incident where a twenty dollar bearing let go and we ended up not qualifying for that meeting last year in February, so we want to make amends and maybe be third time lucky over there."
The Striker Monaro has jumped the field in performance in the last year, with a string of 6 "0" and five second passes putting significant pressure on other teams to dig deep and find more performance and methods to get their Top Doorslammers down the track smoother and quicker. "Victor Bray has spent three weeks on the flow bench trying to find more power. Maybe that will help him, or give him more problems trying to get down the track I don't know, we will just have to wait and see. We might end up making more power yet. We are just going to do our own deal. At the end of the day we have to make sure we don't beat ourselves. We just need to get the car consistent and down the track and we will get the win. If we can come out in the top three of 22 cars in the field, we are at the pinnacle of the bracket and we just want to stay up there.
Zappia Racing fans are welcome to come join John Zappia and the team on race day in the pits. A range of merchandise and limited edition framed pictures will be available to be personally signed by Zap.
