Reigning five times back to back ANDRA Top Doorslammer Champion John Zappia has arrived in Sydney Australia for Round 5 of the Australian Championship at the prestigious Nitro Champs this weekend – set to do battle with the other 17 competitors.
“We will have the Fuchs / Striker Crushing Monaro cranked up for this weekend” said Zappia, “the competition has caught up to us with several racers capable of five sevens, and five eights – so we need to put our recent race time experiences in Perth to good use, where we have been trying to get the extra power to the track and reduce the amount of tyre shake”.
“A 5.83 @ 250.5mph off the trailer at the test and tune today set our baseline, and we can work from there. We are pretty confident after that pass”.
“We are hoping for some luck this meeting, to get our championship progress back in line with our goals. The Zappia Racing team are pumped and ready for the challenge. Gerry, Richard and I have been working very hard on taming the beast of an engine we have now. Designed entirely in-house, the combination has shown us there is a lot more power in these Hemi’s than we thought, with the Noonan Race Engineering heads working out really well for us”.
“Sydney has been a great track for the team over the years, and we want to build on last year’s Nitro Champs success where we top qualified, ran three consecutive five sevens, and reset the National Record at 5.769 @ 251mph. A loss in the final last year has motivated us to aim for the win this year”.
The Championship sees Peter Kapiris leading with 271 points, followed by Victor Bray on 208 points and Zappia on 185. With four rounds remaining, it is still early days to say who will win.
“We may see some upsets this weekend, as quite a few teams have run the odd five eight. It was unfortunate Garry Phillips was unable to compete in his new Camaro, but he will be back for sure. This is one of the most wide open fields we have raced this year with Kapiris, Fabietti, Sutton, Bishop, Belleri, O’Connor and the Brays who have found form. There is also Mike Janis racing Mifsud’s Duster who could be a surprise packet – but it’s still a new combo for them to sort out”.
“All this means we will have some very exciting doorslammer action at the Nitro’s this weekend. Our Co-Naming Rights Sponsors Striker Crushing and Screening, and Fuchs Lubricants will have representatives at the track, and we enjoy their continued support”.
Qualifying starts at 12.20pm on Saturday 4th May (Eastern Standard Time), with Q2 at 3.40pm and Q3 at 6.40pm.
Eliminations are at 11.50am, 2.23pm and 4.40pm on Sunday 5th May (Eastern Standard Time).
The best way to follow the action if unable to attend the track is to tune into the ANDRA Twitter feed, the ANDRA Facebook page, or the www.dragnews.com.au live feed.
