Pressure on Peter Kapiris at penultimate round
Peter Kapiris is in prime position to earn a second ANDRA Top Doorslammer championship and the Lady Daly Hotel Springnationals at Adelaide International Raceway from September 20 to 21 could be the point where it is wrapped up.
Kapiris is currently 96 points ahead of his nearest rival, five times champion John Zappia. Also still in the hunt is six times champion Victor Bray.
If Kapiris can stretch his lead to over 118 points then the championship will be entirely his, while anything over a lead of 98 points means he just has to make a qualifying pass at the season-ending Australian Nationals in Sydney to seal the deal.
Although now based in Victoria, Kapiris has home town roots in Adelaide and says he will have many supporters and family there to cheer him on.
"I was born in Adelaide but I don't like to tell too many people," he laughed. "I will be racing in front of all my family and all my cousins and we'll probably have over 60 guests there.
"When you have that sort of pressure on you to perform you tend to go harder. We're going there to try and wrap this championship up and get it done and dusted before Sydney."
The Lady Daly Hotel Springnationals will mark the first time Top Doorslammers have competed in championship drag racing at Adelaide International Raceway since 2000, though they have appeared at two very popular exhibition events since.
It will also be the first time Top Doorslammer has been contested over a 1000 feet distance, brought in due to Adelaide's short braking area.
"Adelaide is definitely a different track to what we normally race with being all bitumen and 1000 feet," Kapiris said. "But when we used to race there it was always a quick track.
"If the track comes up well and the conditions are good, people will run fast there. It's probably easier in one way being all bitumen because you don't have the transition from concrete to bitumen where you can slip up. If the traction is similar the whole way you can tune for that."
Kapiris said his team including crew chief Mark Brew will be the ones more under pressure than the driver.
"For me as a driver it is no where near as hard as the guys who have to tune the car," he said. "You want to run a number but you also need to get down the track cleanly. It's going to be a crew chief's race."
The Top Doorslammers will be joined by Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle plus a round of the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship.
