Seventh Consecutive Title

John Zappia secured his seventh consecutive ANDRA Top Doorslammer Championship at the Fuchs Spring Nationals - the longest consecutive title run in Australian drag racing. The championship was wrapped up with one round still remaining in the season.

"Fantastic result for Zappia Racing and our Naming Rights Sponsors Fuchs Lubricants and Striker Crushing and Screening. A big thank you to my Sponsors, Crew and Supporters." - John Zappia

Qualifying

Eleven Top Doorslammer teams from around Australia contested the event. Qualifying began Saturday in favourable conditions, though tyre shake proved a persistent challenge for the Zappia camp across all three passes.

Stuart Bishop led qualifying with a 5.091 at 218.43 mph. Zappia slotted into second with a 5.099 at 222.11 mph, followed by Fabietti on 5.105 at 211.36 mph. The bump spot fell at 5.243, leaving Kapiris and Gregorini as notable non-qualifiers.

"We were experimenting with a combination to try and overcome this dreaded tyre shake - but it ended up worse than ever." - John Zappia

Eliminations

For Round 1, the team returned to a known setup based on existing data. Facing Marty Dack, Zappia selected the left lane to manage visibility issues from his driving position. The pass required two pedal corrections after tyre shake, but the Monaro held on for a 5.19 win over Dack's 5.23.

Other Round 1 winners: Bishop over Priolo, Fabietti over Goonan, and O'Rourke over Phillips.

In the semi-final against Fabietti, Zappia switched to the right lane, gave up the light, and had to chase. A hard first-gear launch, a quick throttle correction in second, and committed driving produced a 5.06 - low ET of the meeting - to overtake Fabietti and take the round.

O'Rourke advanced to the final after Bishop red-lit in the other semi.

The Final

The final paired two long-time Western Australian competitors. Zappia chose the left lane to avoid sun glare on the staging lights, accepting a trade-off in lane performance.

"Unfortunately the crew positioned me to avoid some blistering on the track surface, and the Crusher was pointed to the left. The car launched hard but went left - I pedaled and just grazed the wall, and came up short of O'Rourke's winning 5.26 at 216 mph." - John Zappia

The finals loss did not affect the championship outcome. Zappia had already accumulated enough points to clinch the title.

Season Perspective

The early part of the season presented challenges as the team pursued performance gains that temporarily moved the car away from its known setup. Returning to data-driven tuning restored consistency and delivered the results needed to secure the championship.

"We got a little lost chasing some performance - and believe me it is easy to get lost trying to get these brutal Doorslammers down the track competitively - but brought the car back to where we knew it would perform from our data which ensured the wins came." - John Zappia

Next Up

Zappia Racing returns to Perth for the Motorplex opening test-and-tune before heading to Sydney Dragway for the Australian Nationals on 31 October. With the championship decided, the team can focus solely on performance at the final round.