NEW PRO ALCOHOL HARDWARE ON SHOW AT WINTERNATIONALS

Pro Alcohol will field some new looks for their final round of the NDRC series at the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals after the unveiling of a few surprises at Warm Ups this weekend.

The biggest news is Gary Phillips returning to his roots in this retro livery Pro Alcohol Altered. Phillips has been side-lined after a devastating fire in the first round of the championship that caused heavy damage to his funny car at the first round of the series.

“It has been 220 days since our fire in Sydney, and it has been a very long road to recovery for our team, but we’re finally back at the track!” said Cheyne Phillips.

“As you’ll see things look a lot different now to how they did in October, but long time followers of the sport will also recognise our throwback scheme from Dad’s last altered that he ran from 1988 to 1991. Ironically this month also coincides with the surprise debut of Dad’s white Comp altered 40 years ago at the 1984 Winternationals at Surfers Paradise.

“After the fire, the chassis was stripped bare and fully inspected, and all was OK, before the very arduous process of fabrication, body and wing mounting, reassembly and safety upgrades were undertaken. We’re out at Willowbank for 2 days of testing on the brand new track surface, ahead of next weekend’s season ending Winternationals. We’re certainly hoping for some positive results over the next 2 weeks to reaffirm the hard work and commitment that has gone into this rebuild.

“Thank you to those that helped with the rebuild (especially Fred Westhoff, Justin Walshe and Peter Wells – RIP mate). Thank you to those sponsors that have remained on board, and helped provide the replacement products we needed to get back on track; Mum, Dad and I really appreciate it. We’re starting from scratch with a few ideas, but have a solid baseline to work from with a lot of other areas. This is the same chassis we had before – first to the 5.30s and over 270mph, but just rebodied. We’re looking forward to seeing what we can do with our Pro Alcohol Altered.”

Also returning from an on track incident is Jake Donnelly steering the DBS Motorsport Pro Alcohol Funny Car. Donnelly had won the 400 Thunder Super Thunder event last April before a chute failure sent the funny car careering into the Willowbank sand trap causing major damage.

The team have since set about rebuilding the funny car and the final result is stunning.

“We’re back baby – finally!” announced the team.

“Introducing the new livery for our Pro Alcohol Funny Car piloted by Jake Donnelly – ready to roll for testing this weekend at the Gulf Western Oil Winternationals Warm Up!

“Thanks to all of those involved in the rebuild and preparation of the car over the past 12+months – it’s been a long time between drinks but we’re all ready to take a big sip over the next two weekends.”

Daniel Reed has switched rides too, as the team test the viability of their All Star Batteries Pro Alcohol Dragster at the Winter Warm Ups opposed to the funny car Reed had been running for the series, the Bob Meyer built dragster was formally raced by Dean Oakey.

“We have entered the Winternationals Warm Up and the race in Pro Alcohol Dragster, the idea is to test the dragster with our spare motor, heads, clutch etc to see if it has potential, if it has, that’s what we will race, if not, the Pro Alcohol Funny Car is ready to go. We will see what happens, but we are planning on giving it a red hot crack,” said Reed.

Russell Mills has an uncatchable lead in the NDRC Pro Alcohol Series with Reed placed second ahead of Chris Hargrave. The Winternationals runs from June 6 to 9.