Zappia has made no secret of his desire to overtake Victor Bray's legendary six straight titles in Top Doorslammer before eyeing off Gary Phillips' overall record of seven consecutive professional championships.

"We just need to get a good start this year and put pressure on with our performances, rather than playing catch up through out the season," he said. "We've learned how to run 5.70s and we now need to try and keep there as much as we can."

Since winning the Top Doorslammer championship in June, Zappia's off season has been spent competing at some Slamfest events at regional tracks, which provided him with some leads on a nagging tyre shake problem.

Chris Matheson - Top Bike (Photo courtesy Fred Dwyer)Chris Matheson will be aiming for an impressive fourth championship in a row come this season with his Nitro Voodoo Top Bike team, which kicks off next weekend at Sydney Dragway.

Matheson is no new comer to high horsepower or speed, having competed at Bonneville in an ex-NASCAR Ford Thunderbird and closer to home at Lake Gairdner in South Australia on a number of occasions.

But he says nothing is like the 1500 horsepower nitro motorcycle he rides.

"The buzz you get from raw horsepower and big speeds is unparalleled in anything I have experienced in my life," he said. "Nothing comes close to the kick in the tail that you get from the nitro bike as it fires down the track."

Darren Morgan - Top Fuel (Photo cortesy Fred Dwyer)Current Australian Top Fuel Champion Darren Morgan kicked off the new ANDRA season in style by taking out the opening round at Adelaide International Raceway.

"We couldn't be happier with the way things turned out," said Darren. "The crew and car performed flawlessly and we've walked away with a good bag of points and the championship lead. It was amazing how Rino and the guys from Racing Onn Promotions were able to put in such a great show in trying conditions."

Using the newly introduced 3 round format, the compulsory qualifier saw the team lay down a stout 4.59 to the 1000ft mark, the distance used at Adelaide International Raceway for high horsepower vehicles.

The FUCHS LTFR Top Fuel dragster opened the 2013 ANDRA Championship Season in style with a runner-up trophy and a new track record at the Racing Onn event held at Adelaide International Raceway last weekend.

After topping the qualifying sheets with a 4.33-second pass, Lamattina made his way to the final to face off against last season's champion, Darren Morgan.

The second LTFR car driven by Luke Shepherd suffered some mechanical gremlins, which restricted the performance for the car across the weekend.

Reigning national Top Fuel champion Darren Morgan began his series defence in the best way possible on Saturday night, taking out the opening round of the ANDRA Drag Racing Series at Adelaide International Raceway.

Morgan defeated Phil Lamattina in a repeat of the final from the last event at Adelaide in April. Despite close ET figures with Morgan's 4.47 and Lamattina's 4.45, the race was decided when Lamattina jumped the start, resulting in a red light glaring in front of the capacity crowd.

Morgan turned in consistent performances to take the team to the winner's circle.

Adelaide will come alive to the sound of 8,000 horsepower nitro burning engines this Saturday as reigning champ Darren Morgan rolls into town for the 1st round of the ANDRA Top Fuel Pro Series.

Back in April 2012, Darren took out the inaugural Pro Series 1000 event at Adelaide International Raceway and is looking to repeat the feat this weekend, when the team goes head-to-head with Top Fuel pilots Phil Lamattina, Luke Shepherd and Queensland's Steve Read.

“The team and the car are ready to rock,” said Darren. “All the long hours in the workshop preparing for this event will be worth it when the throttle cracks open for the 1st time in front of a packed house of fans.”