John Zappia took the A Final win in "Top Comp" last weekend at the Perth Motorplex in Craig Pedley's new Crusher HQ Monaro Top Doorslammer, and further secured his reputation as Australia's leading Top Doorslammer tuner and driver. The current Top Doorslammer back-to-back National Champion drove the new car in its first event since licensing, and managed to pick up the trophy, cash and top points for the Top Comp Championship - the most coveted local Group 2 Blown Alcohol Championship in Australia.
"The team was thrilled to win" said John Zappia, "We really like winning and the standard is very
high in our team, and we still get very excited with a win and quick times. We got a lot of
personal satisfaction in this win, because it proves our reputation beyond one car. Zap's Rat -
the Striker Top Doorslammer has been racing for years now, and we hold the National Record
in that car, but this new car is different, and our set ups, tune and systems all proved
themselves well when applied to the Crusher Monaro".
Zap came out for the first qualifying opportunity at 3.30 pm and despite a perfect reaction time
of 0.000, Zap had to pedal the Crusher to keep it straight, and a 6.006 @ 237.46 mph was the
result. The Zappia Racing crew was all over the car in the pits, making calculated adjustments
to the suspension - the key to getting these 3,500 horsepower monsters down the track. The
compulsory qualifier at 6.30 pm after the Pro Stock cars resulted in a dead straight 5.945 @
239.36 mph to place the Crusher 4th in the Top Comp qualifying list, 0.475 seconds under the
index of 6.420.
"Top Comp is a tough bracket to race in, and we needed to be very quick to get into a final here.
The 5.945 was good, but we needed something special - maybe an "eight" or a "seven". I hotted
up the Crusher for the first Eliminator and a 5.832 @ 245.23 was a huge performance against
Debbie O'Rourke's AA/FC Funny Car 6.229 @ 225.56. Not far off our National Record 5.828".
Zappia uses the Boninfante 10.5 clutch and custom made clutch discs. |
