If there’s a drag strip in Australia that feels like it belongs in a Mad Max film, it’s Alice Springs Dragway. Set against the backdrop of the rugged MacDonnell Ranges and surrounded by open desert, it’s a quarter mile that gets the job done — built tough, prepped well, and right in the heart of the outback.
When the sun drops and the mountain shadows stretch across the top end, it looks like the kind of place where horsepower outruns the apocalypse. It’s also the kind of place that makes you respect the throttle. Take one step too far, and the track will let you know. But when it all comes together, it turns a simple match race into something the crowd won’t forget.
This year’s Red CentreNATS featured exactly that.
A Top Doorslammer showdown between two of Western Australia’s most recognised racing families: John and Brodie Zappia versus Daniel and Lisa Gregorini. Four cars. Three rounds. No qualifying. They called it the Family Feud. And by the end of Saturday night, the scoreboard read five wins to one in favour of Zappia Racing.
For John Zappia, the event came hot off a second-place finish in the 2025 NDRC Top Doorslammer Championship just one week earlier in Darwin. For Brodie, it was a different kind of challenge — new track, short format, unpredictable surface, nothing guaranteed.
“The pressure was off,” John said. “However, it was a trickier track than we’re used to.”
On Friday night, John and Lisa’s cars were fired up out the front of Lasseter’s Hotel Casino, angry 500 cube Hemi engines at full noise while an enthusiastic Alice Springs crowd soaked it all in. A glimpse of what was to come. Saturday’s afternoon qualifying however, was all for naught. Alice Springs turned up the chaos as strong gusty winds rolled through, making it unsafe to run. But by evening, the desert settled down. The dust cleared. And with the sun dropping behind the ranges, three rounds of no-qualifying, heads-up Doorslammer racing were ready to roll.
With qualifying off the table, lane choice and opponents were decided the old-fashioned way.
“We did a coin toss to see who we would race in the first round,” John said. “Brodie and I both won the coin toss and picked our competitor and lane choice for Round 1.”
And from there, it was on.
“When you come to a track like Alice Springs, you’ve got to back these Doorslammers down to find a safe baseline,” John explained. “It’s got 60 feet of concrete, then asphalt the rest of the way. We were racing to the eighth mile this weekend, but even in those 200 metres, a lot can happen.”
True to form, this was about to become a high-speed tiptoe through the desert. Round One saw John line up against Daniel Gregorini in the right lane. Both laid down big smokey burnouts to the cheers of the crowd.
John and Daniel left together, but the FUCHS/Summit Racing Equipment Monaro made an early move toward the wall. What followed was a high-speed game of hopscotch — lift, pedal, stab, correct — as Zappia kept the car off the wall and nosed it through first with a sketchy 4.450 to Gregorini’s 4.767 over the eighth mile.
Brodie matched up against Lisa and delivered a squirrelly run down the right lane — enough to gather up another win light for Team Zappia.
Round Two was where it got spicy.
Brodie was back in the right lane against Daniel. He drilled the tree with an 0.054 light and had the Max Plant Monaro rolling — until 200 feet, when the nose dropped and the car darted hard toward the centreline. Brodie caught it once. Then got back on it. And it bit. The car speared into Daniel’s lane, but Gregorini had already pulled the chutes. Brodie reeled it in and ran it through to a 4.859, but the lane cross handed the round to Daniel.
Wild, but still on four wheels. And a lesson banked.
John’s second matchup was with Lisa, this time taking the right lane. Cautious off the line, he clocked a .089 light. The car stayed straight, John keeping it conservative. A 4.177 at 280.17 km/h got the nod over Lisa’s 4.345 at 266.00 km/h.
Two rounds. Two wins for the legend. Brodie at 1–1. That locked in John for the A Final and Brodie for the B.
It was Round Three — finals time. The Alice Springs faithful were packed fence-line to fence-line, ready for some heavyweight Doorslammer racing. The B Final kicked things off.
Brodie versus Lisa, again. This time, the kid was locked in. A razor-sharp 0.010 light to Lisa’s 0.099. The car didn’t step, didn’t blink. Brodie stormed to a 4.083 at 296.66 km/h to Lisa’s 4.340 at 264.35. A strong way to close out the rookie’s season.
Then came the big one.
John versus Daniel. Left lane for Zappia. Right lane for Gregorini. The lights dropped. 0.135 for John. 0.139 for Daniel. Both out clean. But at 100 feet, John’s Monaro started walking. Quick correction. Then another. The fans could see it — the car wasn’t happy, but Zappia kept working the throttle, getting the Monaro to co-operate.
“You’ve got to feed the power gradually and hold on, you’re driving by the seat of your pants,” John said later.
And that’s what Zappia did. A 4.309 at 253.94 km/h to Daniel’s 4.419 at 252.32. Ugly on paper. Beautiful in the moment.
“It’s like trying to get all that horsepower to walk a tightrope,” John said afterwards.
“But we came out on top. Five wins to one. A great result for Zappia Racing.”
He gave credit to the format and the fans.
“I enjoy that style of format every once in a while,” he said. “Great for the crowd and good fun for the teams. I’ve been to the Red CentreNATS a couple of times now, and it’s always a great event.”
Zappia Racing would like to thank Andy and the Red CentreNATS team, the Alice Springs Dragway staff, and all the fans who turned out to watch horsepower run wild under desert skies.
Special thanks to FUCHS Lubricants, Summit Racing Equipment, Max Plant, and all our partners that keep the Zappia Racing monaros at the top of the field.
