Zappia's finals five

John Zappia took out Top Doorslammer at the Winternationals with a final round 5.99sec. pass to defeat Queensland's Ben Bray.

It was a near perfect weekend for the Spearwood local, also top qualifying following a 6.03sec. run.

Zappia had a mathematical chance of winning the championship if Queenslander Gary Phillips did not qualify but unfortunately he laid down two impressive passes, besting with a 6.11sec., to make the field.

“We almost did it all,” said Zappia.

“We were 19 points behind in the championship at the end and we lost the Tin Tops event in April to weather, that was where we could have made up rounds on Gary (Phillips).”

In cold conditions Zappia found the supercharged V8 race engine in his HQ Monaro making massive power but a sticky track allowed the team to apply it all.

“We left the same combo in it all weekend,” he said.

“The traction was unreal, it was ripping chunks out of tyres, we just kept fine tuning it and I concentrated on running my own race. I knew if we did that we could win.”

Fellow West Australian Top Doorslammer racer Robin Judd did not enjoy the same luck, struggling with tyre shake and unable to make a full power run in qualifying.

Ewing takes it all

Modified Bike competitor Adam Ewing proved just why he was WA's state champion by winning the Winternationals and in doing so claiming the Australian Modified Bike Championship.

Ewing's Suzuki was flawless in its performance after qualifying second with consistent 8.5sec. times.

“We came over to win the championship first and the Winternationals second,” he said.

“It would have been nice to get the track speed record but we just missed out on that, two out of three isn't bad.

“There was no troubles at all, we lost a couple of bolts out of the front mud guard and that was it.”

The pressure was on Ewing with the Willowbank facility running extremely tight turn arounds between racers and demanding the team back on to the track just ten minutes after the semi finals.

“Next year we'd like to come back and defend it,” he said.

State champion, national champion and Winternationals champion, it doesn't get better than that.

Batson brings Super Street back

Wayne Batson returned the Super Street championship back to WA by wrapping up the title at the Winternationals after advancing to the third round.

Unfortunately he missed the next round due to an error in the pits but fortunately no other racer was able to come close to his points haul.

“We've come a long way to win it,” he said.

“The only trouble was a lack of sleep from being out at the track so late.”

Wynd winding up

Shane Wynd took out the Australian Super Sedan Championship at Willowbank under controversial circumstances.

Wynd was lined up with championship rival Darren Parker in the very first round of eliminations, desite their requests not to be, with Parker taking the win after Wynd red lit.

Parker then went out in the following round however, meaning Wynd was able to claim the championship.

Wynd will now take a break to have surgery on his hand which was injured in a work accident.

“I need to take seven months off so I will give my crew chief a chance to drive the car for a while,” he said.

“I was really annoyed after what went on in the first round, I think winning the championship is only just starting to sink in.”

Hot stuff

Whilst success was on the cards for many there was also a few dramas for competing West Australians.

Jay Upton was still in the testing stages of his new nitro-fuelled and supercharged Honda engine in Top Bike at the Winternationals.

After wrapping up the championship earlier in the season Upton was free to experiment but it was leading to some spectacular results with two engines going up in flames during Winternationals qualifying.

Fortunately the radical body design on Upton's bike, designed for aerodynamic stability, had a suppressive effect on the flames but as the picture shows it was still quite warm underneath.

Meantime Quinns Rocks firefighter Allan Dobson had some heat of his own happening while driving the Santo Rapisarda-owned Uplift Cranes Top Fuel Dragster.

Dobson blew three motors over the course of the weekend with intense fireballs each time. Unfortunately one occurred while Dobson was leading in the semi finals against Australian champion Phil Read, handing away what was looking like certain victory.

Read had taken out another West Aussie in Martin Stamatis in the first round when Stamatis's car had engine troubles.