In what has been hailed as the Biggest Drag Racing event held in Victoria in years, Gary Phillips has claimed the Top Doorslammer crown in the inaugural True Blue Drag Racing Championships at Calder Park Raceway.

Enjoying the fruits of a successful season so-far in Championship Drag Racing in Top Doorslammer and Top Alcohol alike, Phillips took his Lucas Oils1953 Studebaker to Melbourne to race at the ADRL (American Drag Racing League) style event.

“If you think that the start matters in quarter-mile drag racing, then double it for eighth mile racing!
We tried to be right on our game from the get-go,” said Phillips, rapt with the weekend’s outcome.

Facing up to a huge horsepower starved crowd, Phillips was pleased to be able to give some national
exposure to his faithful Lucas Oils sponsors for the first time in almost a decade, as he faced
Sean Mifsud in the first round of the ‘Chicago shootout’ style elimination.

“It’s definitely very different to normal tournament drag racing,” said Phillips of the Chicago style
competition; a format that is reserved usually for team sports in America.

“Our first run only decided the pairings for round two, similar to a qualifying round. Then in round
two, the two quickest elapsed times winners of those four match-ups go through to the final.”

“The first run was a 4.869 which sat us fourth in the field. This set up a race with the #5 qualifier
(4.938) in the second round, but we still had to come up with the quickest time in the second round
to get through to the final and we got that with a much quicker 4.021.”

With the preliminaries complete, the Lucas Oils Studebaker would ironically face the Wild Willy of
Sean Mifsud again for the final, and despite a marginally slower reaction, Phillips set a blistering
4.059 at 188.96 mph to drive around Mifsud (4.249) for the win, setting both low et and top speed
of the event.

“Just before the final, they sprayed the track which really brought it to life, but with the car set up
for a less sticky track we were a bit soft in the clutch department so it drove right through it on the
1-2 shift but, it had enough to take the win,” said a chuckling Phillips from his home in Hillcrest,
Queensland.

And as the Lucas Oils Team savoured the win at Calder, Phillips was immediately back in the workshop
finalising preparations for driving duties of his Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Car at the Perth Motorplex
this weekend for the fifth round of ANDRA Top Alcohol Championship, where he currently sits
a close second on the ladder to Steven Reed with four rounds remaining in the series.

Story by Bennie Bishop of Benzpress – 0433 112 959