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Our Team at the 2016 Winternationals

Last weekend the 2016 City of Ipswich Winternationals were held at Willowbank Raceway. Being the final championship round of the 400 Thunder season for Australian drag racing, our team was tuned up and ready to go. 


In the Top Doorslammers John Zappia laid down a nice 5.82 @ 246.70mph in the first qualifying round, which put us at the top of the field, Mark Belleri closest with his 5.86.


The Zappia Racing crew replaced the engine complete overnight and presented for Q2 where the Fuchs Monaro ran 6.11 @ 248.89mph to stay at number 1 – with Grant O’Rourke jumping to No 2 with a 5.84.


With another complete engine change to carry out after running 5.77 @ 237.50mph to Top Qualify ahead of the 17 car field, the engine was looking pretty sad before the run with bits of rod, piston and gudgeon pin all through the motor.


Round 1 Zap drew No 16 qualifier Mark Harris in the Willy Coupe, and had a lucky break after Harris was pushed back after the burnout. 300 ft out Zap popped the blower burst panel and coasted through for a 10.28 second pass for the win.


Round 2 saw one of the biggest runs of the weekend with returning local hero Victor Bray running Zap. After two big smoky burnouts it was Zap who came out victorious with a 5.857 @ 243.81mph to Victor’s 5.963 @ 243.63mph.


The Semi final was representative of four quickest cars in the field – Belleri vs O’Rourke, and we drew Ben Bray. The car started up in the pits fine, but on the hit in the burnout the brand new blower belt snapped – putting an end to our Winter’s battle. “That’s the second time this season I had to watch the race in front of me sitting in a silent car. It was symbolic of the whole weekend really, and nothing seemed to go right” says John Zappia, 9 time Top Doorslammer Champion.


Belleri and Ben Bray got through to the final, with Mark taking the well deserved win 5.796 @ 243.63mph to 5.860 @ 244.52mph.


In the Pro Stock division our Speedmaster Camaro ran plenty of 6s on our run through to the semi finals, where we unfortunately lost to Arron Tremayne by a red light with a 6.97 @ 196.9.


On a high note this was a top MPH run for the Spinnozi Racing boys who put in a tremendous effort. The Camaro clocked a faster run every session with alot of changes, “I can’t thank my crew enough, they took it to another level this weekend, outstanding job” says Emilio Spinozzi, driver of the Speedmaster Camaro. 


Congratulations to our team on a great season run, we are proud of the efforts from the crew at Spinnozi Racing and Zappia Racing. Moving forward we are looking towards another exciting season in 2017.


 



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