Across two huge days at the Hidden Valley Drag Strip, the NDRC Top Doorslammers provided an absolutely epic display of drag racing thrills for a packed crowd at LMCT+ Nitro Up North – the final event of their 2024/2025 championship season.
While Russell Taylor had been earlier confirmed as the champion at the penultimate round thanks to a dominating season, the fight for second place was wide open between 11-time champion John Zappia and up and coming force Lisa Greogrini, and with a prestigious event win also on the line, intense action was always guaranteed from each and every one of the eight racers who were on-site in Darwin for August 29 and 30.
And this is exactly what was delivered all the way through to the final pass of the night, where John Zappia took the event win over a hard-charging Salim Matta, and with it, second in the title chase.
Earlier in the day, the drag racing veteran had taken two wins over Nasser Matta – first in round one with a 5.820/396.45kph effort over Matta’s 8.157 effort, and then a 5.760/398.57kph pass in round two over a seven second out of shape pass for Nasser – booking his place in the A-Final where he once again set the quickest ET of the event with a 5.740 at 401kph from Salim’s 6.128 effort.
The result – which came in Zappia’s first A-Final of the season – saw the grinning legend declare that he and his team “are back” after what had been a challenging season up to that point.
“The Fuchs Summit Monaro was on a roll that run,” he said after the final.
“The front wheels were in the air, it was dead straight, and it just felt fantastic. It turned out to be the best run of the day, which was 5.74 at 249mph.
“We’re back, we’re still here, and we have got a couple more years to go – we’re just going to keep pushing!
“Thanks to all my crew and all my sponsors and everyone that has busted their ass to make this deal happen.”
For Salim Matta, a Darwin debutant, it was an almost perfect weekend. He topped the time sheets after Friday’s first qualifier with a 5.956/377.90kph effort before being usurped by John Zappia and Brodie Zapipa in Q2, who threw down 5.794/245.72mph and 5.940/402.52kph passes respectively to see Zappia Racing qualify 1-2. In both round one and two Salim took victories over Lisa Gregorini, dealing a heavy blow to her hopes of claiming second in the championship, securing his spot in the A-Final.
“This is just our second event in the car; thank you to this A-team – they have given it everything they have got, my dad, my brothers, my mum, and this crew behind me; I couldn’t do it without them and all their hard work,” Salim Matta said at the presentations.
“We got it done for this Silver Tree and there is going to be many more!”
A thrilling B-Final victory went to Daniel Gregorini over fourth in the title Brodie Zappia, with Daniel enjoying a return to form this weekend after a tumultuous season which culminated in him driving around the junior Zappia with a 5.842/390.26kph run to the newcomer’s 5.899/387.19kph pass, with an incredible 0.002 winning margin at the line.
The green machine’s Saturday opened with a round one win (6.031/379.88kph) over Darwin debutant Pete Lovering (6.332) – the best ET the car had run in recent rounds to that point. He improved further in round two with a 5.897/410.62kph victory after a side by side run with local hero Matt Abel (5.986/375kph) – who had the better RT – which saw him cross the line with less than a tenth of a second margin.
Brodie had earlier taken a round one victory (5.943) of just two tenths of a second over Abel (6.125) before being bettered by Lovering in round two, with Lovering’s ‘shoebox’ delivering a 6.076/374.76kph win over Brodie’s 6.099/400kph run. That saw Lovering into the C-Final against Abel, with the local (5.93/390.18kph) storing to the win over the visitor (6.173).
It was a difficult weekend for Lisa Gregorini, but one which saw her still proud to claim third in the title and finish her Nitro Up North experience on a high with a strong and steady 5.895 second pass at 385kph in the D-Final against Nasser Matta, who was off the gas at 330ft.
Lisa’s Saturday had opened with a critical round one loss against Salim Matta, and she needed to win the second round to keep her hopes of second place alive – unfortunately for her all-girl team, it was not to be, with a round two 6.158 loss to Salim Matta, who locked down a new speed PB with that 5.903/418.42kph win.
“We were lucky to get down in that one (the D-Final), we haven’t gotten down all weekend, so to run an 89 was an awesome effort by the team,” Lisa said after her final pass of the night.
The action at LMCT+ Nitro Up North wasn’t limited to the Top Doorslammers either, with the enthusiastic crowd treated to plenty of action thanks to the ANDRA Sportsman Series, Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Cars, Wheelstanders, and the FMX Air Show.
The NDRC now turns its attention to its final event of the season – the rescheduled Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car finals, to be held as part of the Nitro Nationals at Sydney Dragway on Saturday November 8. For more information on this event, please click here.
To learn more about the NDRC, visit www.ndrc.tv
