Fifteen time national champion Gary Phillips recorded the quickest and fastest run in Australian Top Alcohol history on Friday night before a parachute failure beached his Lucas Oils Top Alcohol Funny Car in the sand trap at the Perth Motorplex 40th Annual Goldenstates event.
The time and speed clocks testified to a landmark 5.469 second pass at a whopping 263.92mph (424.73kph) which catapulted the championship leader across the sand trap, into the darkness and through both catch-nets, stopping just three metres from the venue’s concrete perimeter fence adjacent to Thomas Road.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Gary vented after viewing the destroyed Mustang body that the team purchased just last year.
“I had a choice when I realised that the chutes hadn’t released, to get on the carbon fibre brakes and hope they’d heat up quick enough to slow the car down, or take my hand off the brake and grab the manual override for the chutes. The thought of taking your hand off the brake when you’re going that fast isn’t a natural human instinct, so I just pulled on it as hard as I could without bouncing the car and rode it out, knowing that wall was coming up fast. Either way, I was going into the sand regardless. I’m thankful that this happened at Perth Motorplex because their sand trap system would be one of the safest around with the use of the fine beach sand and dual nets,” a contemplative Phillips said.
However, Gary’s concern for the car vanished instantly once he was aware that the medical team were treating his wife, after her heart failed to keep pace with her running through the sand trap to see her husband.
“Most people thought it was shock that put Deb in the ambulance but she’s seen me crash worse than that before. She just can’t run like she was through the sand trying to get to the scene. But the ambulance girls and track St Johns staff and track safety crew were just unreal and we’re so thankful for their efforts, as well as the dozens of people who’ve called or sent their well wishes through in different ways. It’s nice to be cared for, and we’re just happy to both rest a bit to recover from the incident.
The Phillips family would also like to send out a very big thank you to the staff at both Rockingham and Royal Perth Hospitals for their outstanding care and support.
In a sickening twist to the record run, Phillips 263.92mph speed was ironically .44 of one mile per hour too fast to be backed up by his previous run of 260.86mph. The record making 5.469 was also 0.016 too quick to be backed up within the required 1% of the first run of 5.540. Despite this, the team is excited at the consistency of the car.
The Lucas Oils Team team also surpassed a three year long personal goal of hitting the elusive 210mph mark at half track, sealing the run as their most successful ever, before the failed parachute deployment brought it all undone.
Despite an early end to the weekend, Phillips’ is still leading the championship by 27.5 points.
