At the last weekend’s QDRC event at Willowbank Raceway Cheyne Phillips, son of the legendary Gary Phillips showed up with some new kit – a stunning new Chevy Camaro Pro Alcohol Funny Car. Now in a double-twist, the Phillips Racing team have rocked up to Sydney Dragway for the first round of the NDRC Pro Alcohol Championship this weekend with the funny car instead of the altered.
“Looks like the wrong car made it in to the trailer for this weekend’s race at Sydney Dragway,” laughed Cheyne. “Seeing as we’re already here, we may as well run it!
“After a really, really good test session last weekend at Willowbank, we as a family decided for Dad to sit this one out with his altered, and I’m getting a chance to run my new funny car in Pro Alcohol.”
The second-generation Pro Alcohol racer saw a funny car as his next challenge and has been busily preparing his new ride for the upcoming season.
“As if 2024 wasn’t busy enough with us putting together Dad’s car as an Altered, this is another project we’ve been tinkering on for the past couple of months,” said Cheyne via the team’s Facebook page. “After achieving what I wanted to with the dragster, I found myself asking what next?
“I’ve always wanted a funny car, but finding a car that I fitted in comfortably was a challenge because of my height. When this rolling chassis popped up in the states and it ticked all the boxes I was looking for, I jumped at the chance.
“It’s a 2020 McKinney chassis with low runs, and a Chevy Camaro body. It has previously run in the 5.40s at over 273mph in the States. It’s been a massive amount of work getting it to this stage, thank you to Mum and especially Dad for all the hours he has put in with me to do this, as well as Justin Walshe and Fred Westhoff.
“We stripped this car to the bare bones and rebuilt it back up to our standards. The QDRC was the first time I have ever driven a short wheelbase car, and everything went even better than I had hoped for. First run was a planned shut off at 400ft. Second run, went 5.63 at 254mph. The third and final run ended up being a nice 5.56 at 261mph. This is the fastest speed I’ve ever been, and despite being significantly de-tuned for the heat, it still ran really well.”
“Thank you to Justin, Neal and Ryan for their help out at the track on the weekend, suffering through the heat with us while I get to tick another thing off my life goal list. Thank you to all of our sponsors Speedflow Australia, J Payne Race Engineering, Harts Paint Supplies Gold Coast, Jack Bros Engineering, South Pine Speed on-board fire systems servicing, Amped Magnetos for their support of my endeavours. These guys didn’t even know about the new car either until we were at the track, but there was no hesitation for their product support any time we reached out for it. Thanks to everyone at the track for their kind words after my runs. Finally, thanks to the Willowbank team for braving the heat and putting on a great track surface for us to race on!”
Photos by Drag Photos.
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