John Zappia is adding to his stable of race cars with a pair of new projects to dabble in the exciting world of radial tyre drag racing, though his focus remains squarely on his Dananni Hotshots Holden Monaro Top Doorslammer ahead of a new season at Perth Motorplex.
The first project is a Holden VP ute using Hoosier radial tyres that will be driven by Zappia’s partner Rae Lockwood, aiming for nine second times on the quarter-mile. The second project is a steel-body Holden HQ Monaro that is currently just a bare chassis.
“I bought the HQ Monaro 2 door from Victoria, though we still have to work out how to get it here with all the COVID stuff,” Zappia said. “It’s a mild steel chassis with standard body specifications and will probably find a place in Radial racing, Supercharged Outlaws or AA/Gas. We will set the car up for both a LS motor and a Hemi.”
“Western Australia doesn’t really have a place for big-show radial cars like the Kenda Series in Queensland. We do have a radial class but it is more-so for street-style cars.
“If I want to do a big show radial car we have Zap’s Rat sitting there ready to go, but it’s not as if we have $50K events like they do in the USA.” There is only one other blown hemi radial car which is run by Simon Travaglini from All Fast Converters with his BA Falcon.
And so Zappia’s focus remains on the Western Australian Summer Slam Series, where he hopes to back up his 2019/2020 championship win in his 5.5 second Dananni Hotshots Monaro, nicknamed ‘Crusher’.
“We’ve got a full volunteer crew and it’s not reasonable to expect those people to quarantine for two weeks just to go racing on the east coast, so right now our main target is the Summer Slam,” he said.
“We will be aiming to represent our co-naming rights partner Dananni Hotshots in the best way possible and we are always looking for other sponsors in the Western Australian community to get behind us for the Summer Slam Series.”
While winter has seen less racing than normal for Zappia, he has kept busy by getting a new merchandise shop online as well as setting up his workshop to handle more parts sales. https://www.zapsratstore.com.au/
“It has been a good time to finish off projects I have been meaning to get to,” he said. “The race season here in Perth can’t come soon enough.”
We will start the season off in Perth at Powerpalooza on the 31st October and will have all our merchandise and model cars available to sell. Hope to see as many sponsors and supporters get behind the Perth Motorplex for the start of a new racing season.
Photo: Phil Luyer
