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Top Doorslammers stun in Darwin

Zappia drag racing

By Auto Action

Date posted: 2 September 2025

Hidden Valley Raceway witnessed an “epic” finale to the National Drag Racing Championship Top Doorslammers season.

A big crowd gathered for the LMCT+ Nitro Up North event last weekend, where Russell Taylor was crowned as champion.

The fight for the second best was between 11-time champion John Zappia and up-and-coming force Lisa Greogrini.

Zappia emerged victorious after he claimed the event in the final pace with a tense win over the hard-charging Salim Matta.

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!

John Zappia celebrates the silverware. Image: Cackling Pipes

“Thanks to all my crew and all my sponsors and everyone that has busted their ass to make this deal happen.”

For Matta it was almost a perfect Darwin debut.

alim 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,” Matta said.

“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 the former enjoying a return to form this weekend after a tumultuous season.

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 5.895s pass at 385kph in the D-Final against Nasser Matta, who was off the gas at 330ft.

Salim Matta showed astonishing speed on debut. Image: Cackling Pipes Photography

Her 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,” Gregorini said.

The final NDRC event of the season is the rescheduled Top Fuel and XPRO Nitro Funny Car finals at Sydney Dragway on Saturday, November 8.

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