John Zappia was crowned 2009/2010 ANDRA Top Doorslammer Champion last weekend, after he successfully defended his back to back title by winning the final of the Castrol EDGE Winternationals against point’s leader Robin Judd, with a 5.817 at 246.93 mph and reset the National Record with a blistering 5.805, 246.08 in his semi-final win against Ben Bray.

“I love it when a plan comes together” said a jubilant Zappia, “We set some pretty high goals going into the last event, and to almost achieve them all is a testimony to the maturity and standard of our team. We aim high, and work hard at a lot of one percent details on the car and thankfully most of them actually work”.

John Zappia was crowned 2009/2010 ANDRA Top Doorslammer Champion last weekend, after he successfully defended his back to back title by winning the final of the Castrol EDGE Winternationals against point’s leader Robin Judd, with a 5.817 at 246.93 mph and reset the National Record with a blistering 5.805, 246.08 in his semi-final win against Ben Bray.

“I love it when a plan comes together” said a jubilant Zappia, “We set some pretty high goals going into the last event, and to almost achieve them all is a testimony to the maturity and standard of our team. We aim high, and work hard at a lot of one percent details on the car and thankfully most of them actually work”.

Zap Top Qualified after running 5.866, 241.07mph, 5.831, 245.90mph and 5.810, 247.02mph. In the first round Zap had an easy win against Bishop who tried to gamble on the starter’s finger and ended up with a massive red light and Zap running 5.852, 244.52mph in the Striker "Crusher" Monaro. Round two saw Zap put away Benny the Kid Bray with a 5.805, 246.08mph - resetting the National ET record.

The Final saw Zap with a hole shot over Juddy and win with another "five Eight" - his sixth for the event - 5.817, 246.93mph and confirm his status as Australia's king of doorslammer tuning and driving. Zap is also $12,000 richer as winner of the Karcher Tri-State Shootout. The $20,000 prize money is shared between the top three competitors in the Shootout with a breakdown of $12,000, $5000 and $3000.

“This win is mainly for Craig Pedley and Striker Crushing and Screening, who have given me the opportunity to race professionally with their naming rights sponsorship. Jumping into Craig’s “Crusher” Monaro doorslammer gave us the opportunity to move reliably into the five eight second region and maintain a dominant position in performance”.

“Many thanks to Fuchs Lubricants, whose support for the Pro Series racing and our team has been superb, with incentive bonus dollars as part of their sponsorship package an added motivator for us. It’s a credit to Fuchs Lubricants that the car performed at that level all weekend and there was next to no maintenance on the engine. Local sponsors United Industries and Beta Spuds have been extremely supportive in our efforts, and allowed us to run all our local meetings at the Perth Motorplex”. Also thanks to Dave from Mi Camcorders who has helped in filming our runs and giving us more insight into the handling of the car, and also for adding some glamour to the pits and staging lanes with the promo girls.

“Our list of sponsors is long, because we take on a lot of advice and technology from suppliers who are keen to work with us and gain the advantage. Mickey Thompson supply us with their wheels and a good inventory of tires, and we have been working with Noonan Race Engineering with their billet heads using Victory Valves. We use two sets of components that make it possible to go five eights reliably – Santhuff suspension, and B & J Transmissions”.

Heading the Zappia Racing crew on race day was engine guru Graham Jones from Southside Engine Centre who has been involved with Zappia for his full 26 years of racing. “This is a huge team effort with lots of people involved – in the lead up to events and on race day. The crew worked well together, with a heap of tools from Force Tools on hand. We rely on our knowledge and data systems for detailed analysis, but we are forever learning and incorporating new technology and ways of getting more power”.

Holding his two ANDRA Gold Christmas Trees and the $20,000 Karcher cheque, John Zappia was all smiles.

"Thanks to everyone that’s given us a hand with the car - the crew has done an awesome job all year. The stress everyone copped after crashing and getting up on the wall over here (Willowbank) was huge, and we managed to come back and still run fives with a car untested. But once we realised we could do that, we thought we can put this new car (The Striker "Crusher" Monaro) together and it's going to run fives straight away, which it did on it's first pass and ran five eight on it’s fourth pass. A year later we are running back to back eighties and eighty ones like clockwork”.

“A big thanks to all our race fans that have supported us with encouragement and purchased our merchandise. I sign a lot of autographs and myself and all the crew enjoy talking to the fans in the pits. We hope you enjoy the One HD ANDRA Pro Series coverage of the event, which will be coming to you soon. See you next season for more Top Doorslammer action”.

"We are also looking for a Naming Rights Sponsor for next season. Striker had done a three year deal with us - they will still be a Major Sponsor, but we need a Naming Rights Sponsor for a one car, or a two car team for bigger and better things".