Revered as a drag racing legend by the home crowd, there’s little that John Zappia hasn’t accomplished in his native Australia, earning 10 ANDRA Top Doorslammer championships and countless race victories and records along the way. Having conquered so much back home, it makes perfect sense that he’s set his sights on America, where he’s already building a racing resume in just three short outings on the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) tour.

Zappia, who was tabbed in the second half of the season to drive fellow Australian Jamie Noonan’s Noonan Race Engineering Pro Extreme Camaro, powered the car to the quickest supercharged 1/4-mile doorslammer pass in drag racing history on Sunday at the Virginia Motorsports Park at 5.424-seconds and 265.33 mph. The career-best run, which occurred during testing following the PDRA’s season-ending Brian Olson World Finals, marks the second quickest elapsed time all-time by a full-bodied car, second only to Jose Gonzalez in his twin-turbocharged Q80 Racing/El General Camaro, and the quickest by a blower car, surpassing the 5.47 of Frankie Taylor set in 2014.

Zappia posted impressive early numbers on his way to the .42, clocking a .956 60-foot, a 2.43 to the 330-foot mark, and 3.589 at 215.20 mph to half track.

The Jerry Bickel Race Cars-built Noonan Camaro is powered by an all-new, in-house Noonan 4.9-inch bore space billet Hemi topped with a PSI “C” rotor screw supercharger and backed with a clutch and manual transmission.

“We had a game plan for this three race deal and we are ecstatic to see it pay off. To lay down a world record 5.42 at 265.33 mph on our first full 1/4-mile pass certainly proves the engine is on point with where we thought it should be and for John to head back to Australia tomorrow as the world’s quickest and fastest blown door car driver, we’re thrilled for him, the entire Zappia racing team and for all of our fans” said Jamie Noonan, CEO.  “Our efforts now will be geared back on the business, continuing to improve our internal processes and both on and off track customer relations, along with the introduction of new services to underpin our business model going forward.”

Noonan, a powerhouse in Australian racing circles, from drag racing to the world-famous V8 Supercars, set up shop in the United States this year to broaden its base, with headquarters in Spartanburg, S.C.