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It took him until the final race of the final round of the 2013 ANDRA Top Doorslammer season, but John Zappia was able to bridge the deficit to Peter Kapiris to take his record sixth consecutive Australian Championship.
The irrepressible Zappia came into the Australian Nationals at Sydney Dragway under pressure from Kapiris, however it was his old foe, Victor Bray that opened the door for the West Australian, the Queensland icon eliminating Kapiris in round one.
In the ultimate final round matchup, Zappia fired his way into the final and had to defeat crowd favourite Bray to be crowned Champion. He did it with ease, passing down the quarter mile in 6.071 seconds to Bray’s 6.204.
In the process, Zappia shot past Sean Mifsud and Gary Phillips, in the process setting the low elapsed time for the round, however Kapiris was awarded the quickest speed points.
Bray got by Kapiris and Andrew Sutton.
In Top Fuel, American Tommy Johnson Jr performed his last race for Rapisarda Autosport International in the best possible way. He matched up against RAI team-mate Damien Harris in the final, but got the best of the West Aussie in a brilliant side-by-side drag race.
The RAI duo had to race past the Lamattina brothers in their path to the final. Sydney debutante, John Lamattina had issues ahead of his semi-final run, which was a tragedy after the pair had top qualified yesterday.
In Pro Stock, Jason Grima charged to the ANDRA Championship victory, but still remains without a major event win. He got to the final and faced off against Chris Soldatos who got the job done, gaining a narrow win over local driver, Grima.
In Top Alcohol, Gary Phillips racked up yet another major event win by defeating Steven Ham in the final. Ham had battled for much of the weekend to get a handle on the warm conditions in Sydney, but did a great job to make the final, however was just pipped by the Lucas Oils backed pilot.
In the battle of the top two in the Championship, Top Bike saw Graeme Morrell and Chris Porter face off in the finale. In the end, it went the way of the new Champion, Porter.
Milwaukee Power Tools racer, Maurice Allen took out the Pro Stock Motorcycle event against a red-lighting Luke Crowley.
The Australian Nationals, which drew a massive crowd to Sydney Dragway over the three days wraps up another season of ANDRA Drag Racing competition, the first time that the ANDRA Drag Racing Series has been contested over a year-to-year calendar.
