Championship Pressure Cooker in Perth

The annual Western Nationals are on again this week-end at The Perth Motorplex, Kwinana Beach. The pressure will be on the Top Doorslammer field this week-end to stop West Australian's John Zappia and Robin Judd from winning their home event and getting a good hold on the 2008/2009 Australian Championship with three rounds to go.

John Zappia, the first Australian to run a five-second Doorslammer pass and Robin Judd current Top Doorslammer ET National record holder at 5.868 are not invincible at the Kwinana strip, a chink in their armour showed at this event last year when Judd suffered a first round loss and Ben Bray defeated John Zappia in the semi-final.

That said, Team Bray boss Victor Bray said, "John and Robin have been to every final that has been run this year, so beating them on home turf will be tough, as will knocking off the rest of the category's hard chargers".

"If John Zappia or Robin Judd has a win at Kwinana they will have a good hold on the championship," Victor said, "But if someone can put them out early, there's six other drivers who can win it, including Me, Benny and Mate. The fight could then go on to the Winter Nationals. It's the most important round for both John and Robin, but it's also the most important round for everybody else; we've got to stop them in Perth."

"Zappia and Judd do have a home track advantage but the rest of the competition will also be hot in WA. Kwinana is the track where I set my world record terminal speed of 245.23 mph/394.57kmh back in 2003," Victor said.

"Gary Phillips who currently holds 3rd spot has his race face on as strong as I have ever seen him and is 100% aware of the importance of the situation with the points and the championship. Benny and I have made a lot of changes to our cars since the last event so this would be a great event to really pin their ears back. Mate Able with his new Karcher livery is looking to improve on his 6.20 pass from is last trip to Perth. Deno is always keen where-ever he is and my old sparing partner Peter Kapiris in his Batmobile should never be underestimated. So you've got six top cars that will be keen to stop Zap Rat and the Moon Shine Bandit.

"You can get extremely good weather conditions, (although it can be a little too hot this time of the year), when the Fremantle Doctor blows in; the air cools off and the conditions can get pretty good at night. The humidity is usually fairly low and generally it's not a bad place to be. But what it really boils down to is the racing surface; as the sun comes off it in the afternoon and the track gets better, so does the atmospheric conditions and that's good for drag racing. Also, the way the tracks prepared makes it very favourable for Doorslammers. It's very forgiving."

"We are hopping to be able to test on the Wednesday night before the event, if we work hard, hopefully we'll get a good result," Victor said. "But it'll be tough because there will be 8 cars in WA, four of them can run into the 5's and the rest can run 6.00's secs and if the conditions are right, there is no other place I would rather be in WA this week-end."

Results over the week-end will be available on victorbray.com web site .....here