Two huge crowds totalling over 23,000 people and the now beautiful almost predictable unpredictability of Slammer racing saw the sixth round of the NDRC Australian Top Doorslammer rock the proverbial house at the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Champs over the weekend.
Current Australian Champion Russell Taylor was a dominant force at the third-last round of the Championship earning his first Sydney Gold Christmas Tree by defeating Lisa Gregorini in the A-Final on a surface that Taylor described as ‘killer all weekend’ as he clean swept the event with Crow Cams Australia #1 qualifier, two solo passes and the victory in the A-Final.
It was initially John Zappia who had his hands on the $1000 cheque for top qualifier laying down a stout 5.630 only to see Taylor run a 5.628 immediately after. It was an epic pair of qualifying sessions that saw multiple PBs and an incredible fourteen of the fifteen car field run into the fives. Only Peter Kapiris struggled with the newly configured Saratoga to get some consistency but the team would be on their game later in the weekend.
Crow Cams Australia Qualifying results were:
Russell Taylor 5.628
John Zappia 5.630
Lisa Gregorini 5.669
Daniel Gregorini 5.682
Ronnie Palumbo 5.728
Matt Abel 5.737
Emilio Spinozzi 5.741
Jeremy Callaghan 5.746
Geoff Gradden 5.754
Brodie Zappia 5.813
Nasser Matta 5.821(PB)
Peter Lovering 5.822 (PB)
Nigel Dixon 5.967 (PB)
Jack Danaher 5.976 (PB)
Peter Kapiris 10.708
Round One saw last start Riverbend Nationals Champion Jeremy Callaghan get the weekend off to a good start with a 5.74 in the immaculate Camaro to get the win over Geoff Gradden’s Saratoga (6.411). Brodie Zappia pulled off his first holeshot of the weekend (it wouldn’t be the last) with a narrow win in the Max Plant Monaro (5.78) over the impressive Terra Civil Chevelle of Emilio Spinozzi’s 5.74. Matt Abel took the solo but had issues to roll through with a 7.71. Pete Lovering red lit the much improved Attcall Group Shoebox but Ronnie Palumbo was on a rip to get the W with a 5.74 in the AC Delco Monaro.
Kiwi Nigel Dixon impressed many in the ex Marty Dack Falcon to score victory with 6.09 over Daniel Gregorini who had a wheelie bar issue create havoc in the engine side of things as the front of the Scratch and Match Camaro launched into the air and revved hard, coasting to a stop down the left hand lane. This would unfortunately end Daniel Gregorini’s weekend prematurely. After a thrash from engine issues in qualifying Lisa Gregorini ran a 5.72 for the win over the much-improved Jack Danaher in the spectacular Wildink 57’ Corvette with a 6.00 to be just outside his now PB of 5.97.
John Zappia did John Zappia things with a sizzling 5.591 to set a new NDRC benchmark in the Fuchs/Dananni Monaro whilst Peter Kapiris was off to do more head scratching as they tried to tame down the Saratoga off the line. On his first solo of the weekend Russell Taylor smoked to a 5.594 (just three one-thousandths off Zap’s 5.591 record) to run the second quickest ET of the weekend behind the eleven times national champ. The 5.594 was two thousandths off his Winternationals 5.592.
Zappia now owns the quickest NDRC mark. It was now, officially, ON.
Round two saw Matt Abel take down Nigel Dixon but it could have been very different had the Kiwi not encountered a major wriggle down track that forced him to lift off the throttle to avoid heading into the left lane and see the Northern Territorian rip down to a 5.74 after being initially glued to the start line at the lights. Brodie Zappia faced Peter Lovering next and with both these guys running PBs to that point in qualifying the day before this was set to be a tasty match up. Zappia laid his second consecutive holeshot victory from the encounter as both put down PBs with BZap’s 5.79 edging out Lovering’s 5.78 with an impressive 401.29kph effort. Pete’s red light in round one would come back to haunt him however when the points were tallied for finals contention.
Sunshine Coast Vette’ gasser Jack Danaher faced Ronnie Palumbo up next and after another intensive motor rebuild and configuration in the cylinder head department overnight Palumbo was hoping to get back to his form that saw him win the Jamboree earlier this year in Sydney. Palumbo got the job done in a squeaker with 5.91 against Danaher’s second PB for the weekend running a 5.95 and showing plenty of potential for the upcoming Winternationals ‘at home’. Back in the Fabietti pit afterwards though there was bad news following the run.
Lisa Gregorini faced Geoff Gradden with Lisa getting awfully close to her PB with a 5.66 to narrowly take down the Sydney veteran’s Saratoga who ran a 5.74 to be thereabouts his PB as well. The whole field seemed to be stepping it up. Finally some encouraging signs for Peter Kapiris on his solo as the Kapiris Brothers Saratoga gave the two JC’s (Cutajar and Cunliffe) something to smile about as they got the Moits Motorsport enhanced ‘Toga down the strip to a ripping 5.81.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been into the five eighties,” grinned the affable Kapiris in the pits after the run.
Disappointingly for Jeremy Callaghan a last-minute mechanical drama with the remote solid state relay saw the Luci Civil Camaro unable to fire, leaving PK to his own devices in the right hand lane. Russell Taylor fronted for his second solo pass (minus Daniel Gregorini) and ripped to a 5.60 at 415kph to show that he was clearly – as usual – a major factor in the event and a big chance to extend that Championship lead even further ahead of the Winters.
Emilio Spinozzi unfortunately hurt the motor the day before and was a no-show after the Terra Civil Chevelle looked very impressive with new sponsor Minto Mall onboard. Nasser Matta pulled off a giant killing effort in the next pass taking down John Zappia with a stunning drive to blaze through with another PB in the gorgeous A-Civil Mustang to run 5.72 against Zappia’s 5.73. No sooner was he out of the car Matta was scooting back to the pits to prep the Pro Mod (he ran two classes on the weekend) but unfortunately they hurt the motor in the run and that would be a spectacular way to end Matta’s Doorslammer Nitro Champs weekend. That loss for Zappia, trying to find a gremlin that saw the Monaro falter at half-track saw the Championship third-placed West Aussie facing an unthinkable possible C-Final appearance.
Come finals time the D-Final saw Kiwi Nigel Dixon make the cut and run a 6.05 to end a very positive weekend for the NZ Doorslammer debutant – Peter Kapiris was missing from action due to some engine concerns but the team were buoyant regardless after their ripping round two performance.
The C-Final saw John Zappia on his own after Ronnie Palumbo had motor woes take the Fabietti “Ol Betsy” out of commission and so with a single spotlight on the iconic Monaro anything was possible of course. In typical Zappia fashion he ran a 5.84 with a huge deviation to the left during the run to put on a show and leave the fans smiling.
The B-Final saw Brodie Zappia looking for a possible holeshot hat-trick as he squared off with the massively improved Matt Abel. Abel had the All Coast Hire 57’ in the 5.70’s mark most of the weekend so this was expected to be a ripping match up. BZap completed the holeshot hat-trick to take down Abel with a 5.80 against Abel’s 5.75 (again some stout numbers for the Marlows Lagoon Missile) and score the B-Final honours. It was a .15 light for Abel that made it look like an index race at the lights.
Russell Taylor was a standard almost unstoppable force in the A-Final but Lisa made it a little easier for the current A1 when she had an issue with being able to see the start lights so she ended up giving Taylor a whopping .453 RT against Taylor’s .054 that was impossible to overcome in any match up let alone with the runaway freight train that is the Royal Precision Lubricants Camaro.
Taylor ran a 5.64 at 414kph to continue his consistency and stomp to the Gold Christmas Tree and Nitro Champs victory whilst Lisa’s runner-up spot solidifies her second place in the Championship as we head to the Winternationals and the Zappia’s battle for third with now two rounds remaining in the title.
