Peter Kapiris

“I knew they (Kapiris's team) were going to step up,” he said. “Craig from Striker Crushing (one of Zappia's sponsors) called me up and said you're on fire, just leave it alone, don't touch it - and that's exactly what we did.”

For Zappia it is a turn around from the usual form he starts championships with, where he has typically fought back from poor beginnings. Zappia has dropped only a single point for the season so far and said he is looking forward to taking the show on the road.

“Now we go to Adelaide, it might be a tricky track but we have always had the advantage there,” he said. “And we are real excited to go Sydney and Willowbank.

“I thought 5.80s was the limit, but now we have made a big leap and I don't know if there is much more to leap after this. There is probably a 5.65 in the car on a perfect run. We are that close to being able to run flat 5.70s or 5.69s consistently, but I don't know how long it will take to happen. It could take 18 months to make it happen.”

Zappia's road to the final took him past Wayne Keys in the first round, then Daniel Gregorini in the semi finals before eliminating Kapiris.

Meantime in Top Alcohol, Phillips got to add yet another gold Christmas tree to his exceedingly large collection by defeating Craig Glassby in the final.

Glassby created headlines of his own in the semi finals when he unleashed a 5.410 second time, the quickest pass anywhere in the world by a methanol fuelled funny car.