It’s time Doorslammer fans.
Time to kick off a brand new NDRC Championship this weekend at Dragway at the Bend for the Aeroflow Spring Nationals.
The 2023/2024 Australian Top Doorslammer Championship had more drama than five years of top rating Australian soap opera Home and Away.
Plot twists came thick and fast, PB’s were flying left and right, upsets were the norm rather than the exception and the battles between established superstars and wide-eyed rookies had to be seen to be believed.
Predicting a winner at any of the rounds held at The Dragway at the Bend, the Perth Motorplex, the Sydney Dragway and Willowbank Raceway was not only brave but foolish.
The rollercoaster first year of the NDRC Top Doorslammer Championship came down to the wire – literally – at the standing room only final round at the Winternationals in Willowbank Queensland.
History will show that – true to his nickname “The Ice-Man” – West Australian Doorslammer rookie Russell Taylor kept his cool to emerge with both the Winternationals Christmas Tree and the inaugural NDRC Doorslammer title.
He did it in style too with a clean sweep to round out the Championship.
Crow Cams #1 Qualifiers were shared predominantly during the season between Russell Taylor and eleven times national champion John Zappia with the surprise result of Paul Cannuli scoring the cash at the series opener at Tailem Bend.
Sydney rookie Ronnie Palumbo scored a dramatic opening round win at The Bend – but he had to wait until the second round held in Perth to do so after he and fellow A-Final debutant Lisa Gregorini both remarkably failed to take the green light in SA.
Palumbo narrowly edged out Gregorini on home turf in in the re-run in WA for the Bend win, and then remarkably it was Taylor who beat Zappia in the 49th Goldenstates to score the Round Two victory at the Motorplex the next night.
It was a huge turn around for Taylor who had struggled in the first round at The Bend.
Taylor and Zappia faced off again at the Festival State Nationals at The Bend in mid-January and in a dramatic situation “Zap” was DQ’d for a crew member start line infringement and Taylor pocketed the Championship points in his giant killing Camaro.
The Australia Day Nationals at Sydney Dragway were unfortunately rained out after qualifying but the disappointment continued with Darwin’s Matt Abel having a heavy crash in the left hand lane which pretty well destroyed the car and landed the likeable Territorian in hospital.
It would also mark the end of his season and sadly in another unrelated incident loveable Victorian legend Peter Kapiris had his two-wheel dirt bike aspirations end his season in the Saratoga with a broken leg that would take him out of most of the season also.
Rookies Ronnie Palumbo and Lisa Gregorini were notching up PB’s left, right and centre and causing some serious concern for the establishment – including proud husband Daniel Gregorini who was watching wife Lisa move closer and closer to his ET’s and incrementals with every pass.
The teams headed back West and a return to the Perth Motorplex for the Westernationals where Daniel Gregorini was hoping to three-peat only to see John Zappia take the Crow Cams #1 qualifier cash, the round win over Russell Taylor (who red-lit) and re-take the Championship lead over Russell Taylor, Ronnie Palumbo and Lisa Gregorini rounding out the top four.
That was three rookies in the top four!
Teams headed back to Dragway at the Bend and Zappia had a point to prove after being DQ’d the previous visit there.
Qualifying at The Bend was INSANE with record ET’s and personal bests flying thick and fast.
Daniel Gregorini was back to his best pushing Zappia hard in Crow Cams Qualifying and it set up a magical battle at the Taj Mahal.
No less than three 5.6’s and two 5.7’s in the top five.
Having said that Q2 was ridiculously close with Zap’s 5.67197 JUST taking care of Taylor’s 5.67198!
John Zappia’s Dananni Monaro took the Crow Cams $1000 after Q3 (he elected not to run Q2) with a 5.642 narrowly edging Daniel Gregorini’s stout 5.658 in The Scratch and Match Camaro and Russell Taylor rounding out the trio on 5.671 in the Royal Precision Lubricants SS.
As they had so often in the season Lisa Gregorini faced Ronnie Palumbo – this time in the B-Final and it was Palumbo again taking the win with a 5.695 @251.64mph.
The A-Final was a replay situation for the past two rounds – both at The Bend and The Motorplex – for #1 and #2 in the Championship points.
Both Zappia and Taylor had reasons for wanting redemption – Taylor red-lighting in the final against Zap at the Westerns and Zap getting DQ’d after scoring the win at The Bend back in January.
Taylor cut an 0.039s light to take the SS out to an early lead but Zappia drove around him to score the Gold Christmas Tree with a 5.602 @256.92mph.
Taylor again ran into the 257mph range – his day seeing two 257mph and one 258mph runs to be the fastest car of the day and take some consolation.
Zappia took a 15 point lead to the Nitro Champs over Taylor in second, Ronnie Palumbo third, Lisa Gregorini fourth, Daniel Gregorini fifth and Peter Lovering in the Shoebox Motorsport Chevy rounding out the six.
Drama was high in Sydney however with Zappia having a series of issues in the Monaro despite being #1 qualifier over Taylor, Palumbo, Daniel Gregorini and Lisa Gregorini the top five.
Daniel Gregorini bounced back to beat Russell Taylor in a pedal fest A-Final and score his first victory for the season in the Scratch and Match Camaro whilst wife Lisa scored the B-Final victory.
Ronnie Palumbo wasn’t able to make the call in the B-Final and while all this was going on Russell Taylor had regained the Championship lead from John Zappia.
Taylor ran a stunning 5.61 to pour the pressure on Zappia in front of a huge Willowbank Winternationals crowd and in the traditional eliminations format the title was going to come right down to the wire.
Zappia had to pull off a small miracle to score his 12th national championship.
In Round One Neil Murphy 5.86 won taking out Rob Harrington’s 5.89,
Ronnie Palumbo 5.708 won against Peter Lovering’s aborted run taking out the Shoebox.
John Zappia’s 5.69 won against Jack Danaher’s 6.07 in the stunning Corvette to send him home and Russell Taylor 5.604’s took care of Nasser Matta’s 6.178.
Round Two was the Championship round though in many respects mathematically Taylor had all but sealed the win.
Ronnie Palumbo 5.75 pulled off a stunning hole shot win over John Zappia’s 5.70 which ended Zap’s Winternationals and just to guarantee that he was on song Russell Taylor’s 5.62 got the “W” over Neil Murphy’s aborted run.
This set up Russell Taylor and Ronnie Palumbo – two rookies – in the A-Final at a place that had clearly rattled Palumbo coming into the weekend but he quickly overcame his trepidation and showed some courageous and consistent speed.
The A-Final saw Russell Taylor’s smoking 5.59 win over Ronnie Palumbo’s stout 5.72 and the Championship was officially his.
Taylor created history with a clean sweep putting an exclamation point on his incredible rookie Championship victory over Zappia in second, Ronnie Palumbo’s gutsy third place and Lisa Gregorini in fourth edging out husband Daniel by a handful of points.
Three rookies in the top five!
It was mega in 2023/2024, now it looks like being mind-blowing in 2024/2025.
As the Aeroflow Spring Nationals loom this weekend Russell Taylor looks to go back-to-back off his historic debut season.
Zappia wants revenge – big time – in an historic four decade anniversary for the team.
The Gregorinis want to step up the program and their Championship aspirations,
Matt Abel and Peter Kapiris are back from injury (and car builds), Andrew Sutton has his gorgeous Corvette ready, Ronnie Palumbo is back looking for another Tailem Bend successful opener, giant killer Jeremy Callaghan makes his Bend debut, Peter Lovering is back with a new lighter body hoping to improve on his current PB and South Aussie local heroes Pat Carbone, Adam Tassone and Mick Mahoney are locked in as well.
It’s a stout thirteen-car wham bam and it kicks off this Saturday.
After the wow-factor of last season what do the boys and girl have in store for us this time around?
