“There’s guys who are finding regular 5.6s and 5.7s and that means every race becomes a tough race,” Zappia said. “Pro Slammers by their nature are so unpredictable, so the guys who can tame them – like Steve Ham right now – are the ones you really have to watch out for.
“We were looking forward to battling with Paul Mouhayet again this season but he is taking a break and we wish him all the best, he and Moits Racing were great competitors.”
Part of the reason for Zappia’s phenomenal success in drag racing has been a commitment to testing, and that has not changed this season. Zappia took the opportunity to hit Sydney Dragway early with the aim of sorting out a gremlin that had been plaguing the Monaro for several events.
“We traced down an electrical glitch that was making the lockup clutch malfunction,” he said. “We did some testing on Tuesday and found the problem, so we just put the manual shift buttons back on and I drove it like I used to. Straight away it went 5.76/249mph even though it rattled and I needed to pedal.
“Then on Wednesday we changed a few things around on the motor, came back out and launched with a .971 60 foot time, carried the wheels a long way and managed a 5.71/254mph in pretty hot conditions. We experimented with stepping it up a little after that but we found the limit and now we have our baseline for East Coast Thunder.”
Joining Zappia Racing once again this season will be major sponsors Fuchs Lubricants, Dananni Hotshots, Crow Cams, Noonan Race Engineering, Hoosier Tires, Muscle Car Warehouse and Speedflow.
