Top Doorslammer continued its Western Swing with NDRC running the bracket’s third championship round as part of the local Perth Motorplex Nitro Slam event. A very healthy 12 doorslammers would fight it out for the first NDRC Gold Christmas Tree of 2025.
TAYLOR PERFECT AGAIN: It was a business like performance from Russell Taylor, now known as Top Doorslammer’s ‘Ice Man’. The EAD Industries Camaro had the performance advantage on the field at this event, and didn’t try to rotate the Earth for the win light. As a result Taylor drove out of the Perth Motorplex with the maximum available championship points for the second straight event.
However it wasn’t a totally smooth event with Taylor admitting it was driver error that saw him miss Q1 when the Camaro could not re-select a forward gear after backing up from the burnout.
“There was a bit of driver error in the first qualifier with not getting completely out of reverse, and it sort of locked up. If we had a good run during the first qualifier, we might not have done the second run. We were fortunate to get through and get a run in,” said Taylor.
Taylor made Q2 count with a top qualifying 5.763 in the heat of the day. From their the team systematically dispensed every challenger with seeming ease. A 5.62 win over Maurice Brennan in round one started the onslaught, with a 5.67 taking care of Frank Taylor in round two and finally a repeat 5.67 defeated Matt Abel in the A-Final for the event win.
“It was a good weekend, and doing it while we’re home is good. We’re just trying to repeat and build consistency. This is drag racing, which can change at the next run, so anything can happen, and you’ve got to have a bit of luck to a degree. We’re just trying to keep our maintenance program the same every time, and it seems to be working, so we’ll stick to it,” Taylor said.
“There’s more in the car; we just went A to B, but it is to the point now where we’re getting some reliability out of it with the base tune, and we can go from there. It is still tricky, don’t get me wrong, and that’s all down to Stu Rowlands and Steven Ham in the background on the blower using the data we have to make it happen.
“In the final, we just wanted to go A to B, we could have thrown more at it, but the car is consistently quick, and we’re in the right realm of our tune at the moment.”
JUST REWARD: If there ever was a Gold Christmas Tree awarded for perseverance Matt Abel would be the recipient, the Northern Territorian has kept on rebounding from a string of accidents to keep putting his black 57 Chev back on track. They don’t give out Christmas Trees for perseverance, but they do for A-Finalists, and while it was not gold in colour either, it was Abel’s first NDRC Christmas Tree and just reward for being a fantastic supporter of Top Doorslammer against all odds.
Abel has been having all sort of shift problems in the 57 Chev, but a complete change of componentry from a fellow competitor looks to have excised the drivetrain demon.
Dipping into the fives (5.98) in qualifying sat Abel in eighth, and after a red lighting 5.95 in round one, an A-Final birth looked highly unlikely. A far better 5.86 dispatched Mark Chapman in round two, and as other race results bizarrely fell in his favour, Abel needed every bit of that ET to secure a spot in the A-Final by not only tying Brodie Zappia in event points but beating his 5.87 on countback.
The final unfortunately was over at the tree, Abel was dead late, but even a perfect light would not have seen the 57 stay in front of Taylor’s hard charging Camaro at the stripe.
GREMLINS CONTINUE TO COST ZAPPIA RACING: For the second straight event mechanical misfortune cost the Zappia Racing team valuable championship points. Brodie started well enough with a personal best equalling 5.83 in Q1, but the blower backfire problem that plagued John at the previous round looked to have transitioned to Brodie’s Monaro, a pop on the top end left the team scratching their head unable to find any visible cause. After Q2 the damage was worse when the team were left to repair a melted rod and piston which required a full tear down before round one due just a couple of hours later.
Fortunately a solo gifted Brodie an easy round one run when Frank Taylor could not make the call, and the team took advantage with an easy 5.91 win on a safe tune to ensure no further damage. Brodie served up a quicker 5.87 in round two but it was not enough against a stunning 5.83 from Brennan, and in a wild moment moment, the Monaro was all out of shape in the braking area as Brodie wrestled back control following only one chute deployment. In a case of de-ja-vu, the loss proved costly leaving the young gun tied on event points and a countback required to determine the A-Finalist just like the Goldenstates, however this time Brodie would be pipped in the ET stakes and was resided to the B-Final against Daniel Gregorini. The B-Final was a case of bad luck, good luck, when the Monaro snapped a blower belt on the hit costing him any chance of the win, but inspection back in the pits revealed it could have been far worse.
“Back at the pits we found a blocked oil hole with a piece of piston obstructing a crank journal, causing a loss of oil pressure,” said Brodie. “Had the belt remained intact, catastrophic engine failure would have occurred.”
For John, the team hoped to have solved the previous event’s blower backfire matters and in qualifying Dananni Hotshots/FUCHS Monaro was solid.
“I qualified with a 5.80, but the car spluttered a bit at the start, running on seven cylinders for a couple of seconds before recovering to eight. That cost us a shot at qualifying into the 5.70s.” said John.
In round one John was on Taylor’s heels in the ET stakes with a 5.73 win over Shane Catalano, and was looking good against Lisa Gregorini in round two before the gearbox cried enough after the 60ft, ending the run, and John’s chances at an A-Final. Sitting in the C-Final again against Lisa, the Monaro rocketed to a 5.70 but left -.003 cherry hanging on the tree.
GREGORINIS GRIND ON:
Despite Lisa Gregorini’s ripping start to the season taking her first ever event win, electrical gremlins plagued the team’s opening two rounds leading to both Scratch & Match Camaros being gutted of their electrical componentry and full rewired. In round one Lisa rolled the beams when up on the two-step handing a win to Kapiris, and doubled-down on the loss when the Camaro crossed the centreline wildly out of shape. Lisa then continued to be John Zappia’s nemesis beating him in round two with 5.73 that set up the C-Final where Zappia red lit.
Daniel was looking to get back to those cracking ETs at the start of the season before the electrical dramas, and qualified second with a 5.78. Daniel looked to have the best performance behind Taylor grinding out 5.7s all event, but a costly falter in round one against Mark Chapman saw the Camaro hauling with the wheels up before all went quiet at 100ft allowing Chapman to drive away for the win, the lost of ET points critical in making the A-Final. Despite driving to a 5.73 win in round two against Steve Aldridge, Daniel found himself in the B-Final against Brodie Zappia. Positively though for the team he hammered out a 5.72 win and will be one to watch at the Westernats.
COMPETITION STEPS UP: Top Doorslammer competition is ever increasing in the West with a bunch of personal best recorded. After not quite licensing in time at the Goldenstates following a complete rebuild of his Barracuda after an accident, Simon Aldridge was quickly on the pace upsetting Abel in round one with a 5.83. Aldridge closed out the event with a 5.76 PB in the D-Final, only to lose on a hole-shotting 5.81 out of Maurice Brennan. The Boomeracing Top Doorslammer team enlisted the help of Michael Marriot to steer the setup back in the right direction and it paid off straight away with 5.8 second ETs back knocking on the door if their 5.80 PB.
CLOSE AS IT GETS: If we remove Russell Taylor from the event points equation after round two in deciding the finalists, as he was the only competitor to earn two round wins – every other racer, bar Frank Taylor who missed round one, sat on one win each. As a result, second through to the eighth in the standings were separated by a mere two point spread highlighting how valuable ET points are in the All Run Format. Every final had to be determined by an ET countback.
Top Doorslammer close out their West Coast swing at the Westernationals before the series moves East for the final three events.
Photos by Phil Reeve and On The Limit Photography
