Aussie Power: Noonan Race Engineering Invades PDRA Pro Extreme Class

Noonan Race Engineering has been a purveyor of power for anybody looking to run big boosted engines all over the world. The Australian company recently moved its U.S. headquarters to South Carolina to expand operations, and now is backing their own fleet of Pro Mods. Their flagship 1969 Camaro made its debut at the rain-shortened PDRA Tulsa event and is ready to take on the Drag Wars event at GALOT Motorsports Park to show what it can do.

While Noonan was opening their new facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, they were also working on their new 4.9 bore space Hemi engine. According to Jamie Noonan, this new engine helped drive the decision to race more with the PDRA. “So our primary objective is to showcase this new product line in our Pro Mod Camaro, so the decision to field a Pro Extreme car in the PDRA came down to the ease of running it in a known format.”

Behind the wheel of the Noonan machine is none other than 11-time national champion, and Australian Pro Mod racing legend John Zappia. Over his career, Zappia has become the winningest Pro Mod racer in the country and holds both ends of the Australian Pro Mod record with a 5.63 at 257 mph pass. “From a Noonan perspective, he has used, and supported Noonan products since the beginning of our journey and he had a goal to drive a Pro Mod in the United States. When considering our options and the best ingredients to enable us to perform well on track, the choice was an easy one to make,” Noonan says.

The hot rod that Zappia gets to pilot is one of three brand new 1969 Camaros that Jerry Bickel Race Cars built for Noonan. Starting at the GALOT Drag Wars event, the Camaro will feature Noonan’s new billet 4.9 bore space engine, manifold, cylinder heads, and will get boost from a PSI C-rotor blower. Backing the engine is a B&J three-speed with Bonifante lock-up clutch. This combination will be nearly identical to what Zappia runs in Australia.

The Noonan team had to overcome some issues moving from a right-hand drive car, to a left-hand drive car that most racers wouldn’t understand, according to Zappia. “There was a lot going through my head on that first pass, I was sitting on the other side of the car, the brake was on the other side, it had a transbrake, and an auto transmission — there was too much going through my head. I also couldn’t see that well while staging, so running in the left lane on solo passes for the first few was hard.”

After getting some minor issues sorted out with the car, Zappia was able to wheel the Pro Extreme Camaro to a very soft 3.69 at 204 mph. However, during their first qualifying pass the car popped the burst panel on the blower and couldn’t make a pass. In the final session of qualifying they were able to repeat their 3.69 pass before the event was canceled, but it showed the car was capable of making laps.

Going into the GALOT event the Noonan team is ready to turn things up a notch and work on pushing their program further along. “Our goal is pretty simple: perform well with the 4.9 and learn from our experiences to enable further development and innovation, as well as supporting our customer base with real on-track experience. To achieve our goals, we need a good performing team that achieves results on track and translates the experience to being able to support our growing customer base with 4.9 information and continued development,” Noonan says.