Pro slammer veteran John Zappia has snapped a four round losing streak against arch rival Paul Mouhayet to take the honors in round six of the 400 Thunder championship at Adelaide international Raceway. In Pro Stock, Tyrone Tremayne claimed victory over sibling Aaron who was attempting to score his seventh consecutive win.
 
For the second time this season ANDRA, the governing body for Sportsman racing, and 400 Thunder, the body responsible for the Pro Series, joined forces for a round of the 400T championship and the Grand Final of the ANDRA Summit Equipment Sportsman Series. 

Day one was allocated for testing purposes and ended in controversy when Pro Slammer racers held a hastily called meeting and declared they would not run the 1000-foot distance citing safety concerns with the track surface and poor lighting in the braking area.

On race day unseasonal hot temperatures and gusting cross track winds blanketed the race surface in dust and played havoc with the race schedule.  After several false attempts to race and faced with the prospect of abandoning the meet officials decided to cut the race distance from 1000 to 660 feet for all ANDRA and 400T categories. 
 
The race format for the Pro series saw a scheduled test session abandoned. The ‘all in format’ for the 400T competitors meant there were three rounds of qualifying with the top two fastest winners advancing to the final. 

 In Pro Slammer there were no surprises when the two powerhouses of the season, Mouhayet and Zappia, topping the time sheets. The final was a thriller.  ‘Zap’, armed with lane choice, was slow off the line and came from behind to claim the win. “Paul got the holeshot,” said Zappia. “I drove my car to all the shift lights, got to the front around half track and took the win.” 

Reigning 400T champ Mark Belleri hopes of retaining the #1 plate disappeared when he missed the final. 

“We haven’t had the season we wanted,” according to team owner Maurice Fabietti. “We started the season on the wrong foot when we got a bad batch of tyres at the first round in Darwin and didn’t qualify. We’re still in third place and that’s not too bad all things considering.” 

Team Bray Racing struggled over the weekend and left the meeting fourth in the points. 

“We had a few issues over the meeting and we know what we need to do to rectify the situation,” said Ben Bray. “We are not making excuses but this weekend has been our fifth weekend of racing in a row and have covered around 7000 miles criss crossing the country.”

A priority for TBR is to go testing before the next round at Sydney in May.

Under fire, track promoter Peter Pisalidis won praise from many competitors for his grace under pressure and commitment to driver safety as a priority. 

“Today has been a massive challenge,” said Pisiladis. “There was the wind and we had racer issues. On the positive side we saw some great racing and got through the day.”

Rapisarda Autosport International Top Fuel stars, Wayne Newby and Damien Harris, match raced and produced a once in a generation experience for the crowd with a trio of spectacular side-by-side passes.
  

Newby took the win in the first of three runs by .01 of a second. Harris returned the favor in second round also winning by .01. In the final run Newby won by .01 of a second. The crowd on the hill was momentarily speechless before erupting into long and sustained applause.  

“We came to put on a show and that’s what happened,” Newby said. “We didn’t need to make any changes to the car because we were running the shorter 660 feet distance.”

“We run extremely similar tune ups in both cars,” added Santino Rapisarda. “The baseline tune up is identical across both cars and from then it’s all about small changes and finessing the tune up.”