07/06/2026
Yesterday (Saturday) I had no idea that I would spend approximately 11hrs with an iconic Australian drag racer helping John Zappia from Zappia Racing out of a problem. John had blown a total of 4 engines up to yesterday afternoon leaving him with no engines to rebuild for Sundayโs race that he qualified for. I was able to talk to him at his pits which he had explained to me what had happened & his only option was to repair the billet block for Sundayโs qualifying in the morning, but he didnโt have a tig welder to do the repair. I offered him to use mine but as I explained to him that I live in Toowoomba. So once he organised his pit crew John, Sam who is one of his mechanics & myself drove to my place to attempt to repair the block. Sam & myself started to clean the block while John used my lathe to machine up a tool for the repair & I got the Tig set up for John to start welding only to find out that the cylinder of Argon that we brought with us was empty & suggested that we take my Tig & oxy set back with us to Willowbank & if he could get a cylinder from one of the other teams.
We packed up headed back with phone calls being made back to his team to chase up everything that was needed to get this done. By the time we arrived back everything was organised. John & one of his mechanics Aaron started the repair & I at first just stayed out of there way & just helped when I could & they were more than happy to allow me to do so. By 3.30am Sunday morning the repair was done & a damaged sleeve removed & replace ready for the rebuild. This isnโt something that happens to everyone let alone me but this experience & opportunity I will grateful for the rest of my life. I know that John won his first race this morning in Top door Slammers & I think he finished 4th overall for the Winter Nationals not a bad effort for a team that had blown 4 engines by Saturday & qualifying for Sunday & being able to get it done. The Zappia team never gives up ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐