John Zappia was left to rue what might have been for the Fuchs/Dananni Hotshots team at Sydney Dragway on Saturday.

Drag eacing is a sport of extremes. High horsepower is the name of the game; however, it is largely governed by weather conditions. The track conditions at Sydney Dragway were certainly on the extreme side in the week leading up to the Santo’s Summer Thunder event.

Team Bray Racing gave the fans plenty to smile about at the weekend’s Santo’s Summer Thunder event at Sydney Dragway.

Emilio and Adamo Spinozzi got the ‘five second monkey’ off their backs at Sydney Dragway on Saturday, running a personal best 5.99 second pass in the Speedmaster Chevelle Pro Slammer.

Pro Slammer driver Sam Fenech has provided an update the day after his massive braking area accident at Sydney Dragway.

Sam Fenech won his first ever Pro Slammer event at Santo’s Summer Thunder on January 19, 2019 but a parachute mishap resulted in an horrific end to the night’s proceedings.

Santo’s Summer Thunder is underway at Sydney Dragway, with a scorching day greeting sportsman qualifying and pro testing.

Stephan Gouws will be chasing down a hat trick this weekend at Santo’s Summer Thunder held at Sydney Dragway.

ANDRA and Summit Racing Equipment are excited to announce that the leading performance powerhouse will once again support the Summit Racing Queensland Championship in 2019.

Australia’s Top Fuel Bike champion has been notably quiet since his spinal injury at last November’s East Coast Thunder championship round.

When brothers Emilio and Adamo Spinozzi announced their intentions to compete in the 400 Thunder Pro Slammer class, not even they would have expected to be in the top five of the points at the halfway point of the season.

Points leader Wayne Newby will lead the Rapisarda Autosport International charge at the Santo’s Summer Thunder meeting at Sydney Dragway this weekend.

The latest round of the ANDRA Summit Series is in the books with more than 150 teams taking part in the event at South Coast Raceway, in Portland, Victoria. 

Joe Kurtovic’s dragster is a literal dream come to life. From the drawings of a 15 year old to one of the most beautiful front engine dragsters in the country, Kurtovic has created a masterpiece. A supercharged Holden six up front breathes life into the beast, one destined for the seven second zone. We speak with Joe about the build process and photographer John Bosher takes us on a tour in issue 37 of Drag News Magazine, now available as a single issue (scroll down to order) or subscription (save $20.19 on subscriptions right now). Fox Cullen has created perhaps an unintentional homage to the days of the Wild Bunch. This Valiant ute brings supercharged aggression to the Pro Radial ranks with a look and sound that would not have been out of place in the NSW vs Qld State of Origin match races of old. But don’t be fooled, this is a plenty modern race car. Racing on the other side of the world is not an easy endeavour. Jett Racing decided to take on the challenge by sending their race cars along with a host of other Australian and New Zealand teams to compete in Orlando. Go behind the scenes and find out what it takes. The recent Performance Racing Industry show in Indianapolis was full of new tech. One of the most fascinating was a carbon fibre Top Fuel rod. Could this material replace aluminium? Find out what the creators and scientists behind the rods have to say. Street Machine Drag Challenge is one of the toughest drag racing events in Australia. Competitors had to travel some 1400kmh in four separate road trips between three different tracks for five days of racing. Records were broken in the best Drag Challenge yet. Plus we take in East Coast Thunder at Sydney Dragway, the first three events of the Perth Motorplex season, Willowbank Raceway’s season finale, Palmyra Dragway’s re-opening, Ballarat’s No Excuses no-prep race and Portland’s Summit round. Drag News Magazine’s print edition is not available in newsagents and must be ordered online. To order press ‘Buy Now’ below, on Australian or international postage. Ordering is secure via PayPal. Postage is via Australia Post and may take 3-5 days. Please ensure your delivery address is correct. Buy Issue 37 – Australian Postage Buy Issue 37 – International Postage E-MAG Don’t forget our e-mag subscription special – just $20.19 for 12 issues but you must use this link. Here is a preview of the current issue (we recommend clicking the full screen icon in the top left):

For quietly spoken Michelle Davies, setting records is not what racing is about.

Australian championship winning team Lamattina Top Fuel Racing have confirmed young American racer Cameron Ferré will be the driver of the YBI Creative dragster for Santo’s Summer Thunder in Sydney this weekend.

After getting its year off to a hot start at Willowbank Raceway, Team Bray Racing now has its sights set on Sydney Dragway’s Santo’s Summer Thunder event.

Under another day of beautiful blue skies at South Coast Raceway, the 2019 South Coast 660 and round six of the 18/19 Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series drew to a spectacular close.

More than 150 racers descended on South Coast Raceway for the first Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series outing of 2019, which was held under beautiful blue skies.

Of all the strange drag racing related things we have seen on the Internet, this jet powered Junior Dragster might take the cake.

It’s time Australian drag racers got recognised. We are now inviting nominations for the Drag News Magazine Best of 2018 Awards. 

A mixed weekend at Queensland’s Willowbank Raceway has seen John Zappia predicting a Pro Slammer championship that may well come down to the wire later this 400 Thunder season. Zappia took two wins from three rounds as part of the New Years Thunder event on Saturday, but a wild run in round two saw the Fuchs/Dananni Hotshots Holden Monaro cross the centre line and give up a potential final round place against eventual winner Paul Mouhayet. Changing track conditions proved a challenge for the team, who tested positively before the event before taking on race day. “We started off a bit too stout in testing, taking some timing blocks out on out first run after going 3.76 to half track,” Zappia explained. “We came back for another shot and blew the tyres off early, then backed off the clutch to get down for a 5.64/254mph late in the night. We were pretty happy with that, so we decided to sit out the hot 2.30pm sighting run on race day and come out ready for the first round.” Zappia took on Paul Cannuli for round one and made it through for his first win light of the day. “We backed it off a bit more for the first round of racing but not enough. I had to pedal and it shook, so I punched second and it kept shaking. We went 5.89/252mph and got the win fortunately.” Zappia next took on relatively new Pro Slammer racer Emilio Spinozzi, whose consistency has been paying dividends. The track conditions were tricky as Zappia searched for the right path down the famous Willowbank Raceway quarter mile. “We did all our testing in the left lane but on race day we found there were a lot of bald spots (areas of thin or no rubber) near the start line so lane choice for most teams seemed to be the right lane. We had to stage the car carefully to make sure we had the optimum path of rubber. “We kept the car staged slightly left against Emilio and when we launched it ended up going more and more left and before I knew it I saw a timing block coming. I crossed the centreline and that was the end of the second round and our finals chances.” Disappointed to give up the win, Zappia had to regroup for the third round against old nemesis Ben Bray. “We didn’t touch the car’s set up and came back the next round against Ben Bray. As I went into stage I looked up and I had double bulbed myself (gone into full stage immediately). I had no startline revs up, so I tried to reverse and back up a little but that didn’t work. In fact it got worse because the car went forward a little and now I was in very deep stage. Ben’s staging lights came on and I got on the revs, I took a guess and dropped the clutch and got near to our launch RPM. The time card shows a 1.08 60 foot because of the deep stage but fortunately our 5.80 was enough to scrape by.” With a 39 point deficit to Mouhayet, Zappia knows there is much work to do in the final three rounds of the 400 Thunder Pro Slammer Championship. “Two of the meetings to come are all run formats where it is hard to claw back points. For us to chase down Paul we will need to be perfect and it may be one of those championships that all comes down to the final round at the Winternationals.” The Fuchs/Dananni Hotshots team next head to Sydney Dragway for Santo’s Summer Thunder on January 18 and 19. Zappia commended Sydney Dragway’s track preparation at recent events and says even in the heat, the times will likely be quick. “We would love nothing more than a race track where we can run a string of 5.60s. It’s only a matter of getting this car to go down the track without needing a pedal. “We have to claw some points back so we need superior performance and consistency to be able to do that.” Zappia also wished to pass on his best wishes to fellow Pro Slammer racer Kelvin Lyle, who had a nasty accident during racing. “We’ve had a close relationship with Kelvin and his team over the years, supplying the ZR1 horsepower in his awesome Ford Mustang,” Zappia said. “It was a rough accident and we wish Kelvin all the best in his recovery and we know he will be back quicker than ever once he is up and about.” – Zappia Racing Media Release

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