This event had John Zappia’s name written all over it – he top qualified in his Holden Monaro, ran low ET and top speed of the meet and for all money looked to be a dead set cert to win but it wasn’t to be. After top qualifying with a 5.729 (nearly a tenth and a half ahead of his nearest rival) Zappia took on Gary Phillips in the first round. Zap was on his game grabbing nearly two hundredths on his opponent’s Studebaker. Phillips had very bad tyre shake just past the tree and this left the Westralian to take the win in 5.971 seconds.

Round two saw the eight-time Australian champion take on Robin Taylor in his Camaro. Zappia laid down a carpet of burnout smoke nearly to half-track and then reversed with the crowd on the edge of their seats. Both came into stage and Taylor took off first, however he didn’t get far before the Camaro failed leaving Zappia to get to about half track before the Hemi went silent – for the record a 6.617 took care of business.

The win put him in the final up against Paul Cannuli, in Sean Misfud’s orange Plymouth Duster. The Duster had damaged a piston in the previous round and took longer than expected to make the turn around. Just as it seemed the starter would give the signal to fire the car pulled into the staging area. A quick fire saw both cars roll through the water and a race was underway.

Zap grabbed the lead off the line while Cannuli wasn’t sure if the engine would make it and took a conservative approach to the run, leaving in top gear. This was a blessing in disguise as the dew point had been reached and Zappia couldn’t keep the white HQ Holden straight. This saw him go right towards the centreline to only bring it back across before giving it another boot full, again the car kicked and shook and Cannuli had by now caught and passed his opponent.

As the Monaro approached the finish line Zappia gave it one more boot full but the car swung around wildly as Cannuli lit the win light. Despite the bracket loss with the points he earned for the runner up, top speed and low ET the Perth driver was able to annex his ninth Doorslammer (Pro Slammer) title so there was still a lot of celebrating going on in the pits.

As can be seen here all is not right for the “Mad Professor” Camaro of Robin Taylor. This is because a floater broke in the rear end sending the errant Chev into a wild sideways drift.

Despite qualifying fourth with a 6.010, over quarter of a second behind John Zappia, Taylor received the bye in the first round which he took with a trouble 12.04. He then returned to lose to Zappia in the semi-finals though I am not sure if another 12.04 at the same speed was actually his losing time.