While the 400 Thunder Top Fuel victory at Good Friday’s Santo’s Super Thunder was taken by the youngest driver in the field, Pro Alcohol winner Russell Mills ensured the opposite side of the age spectrum was represented with a close victory against returning class veteran Gary Phillips.
It was a reaction time advantage giving Mills the win with a .090 to .219 holeshot meaning a 5.622 was able to defeat a 5.515 by just over two hundredths of a second.
Mills, 65, laughed that with a combined 129 years of life between them, he and Phillips (64) represented the senior citizens of Pro Alcohol.
“Before the race Gary came up to me and said how good is this, a race of the old blokes!” Mills said. “We think it might be one of the oldest final rounds ever in pro drag racing.”
Unlike Mills’ last trip to Willowbank which saw a damaged motor and an injured leg from moving the unique ‘Funster’ (pictured above, image courtesy dragphotos.com.au), his journey this time was nearly perfect.
“We had three very consistent runs and right from the test run on Thursday through to the final the car performed well,” he said. “I didn’t always get to the finish line at full power on some runs because of the sun and then some vibrations in the car, but we had enough there.
“The whole Pro Alcohol field put on a great show for the spectators, out of 20 runs from the field there were 17 full passes and the slowest of those was a 5.82.”
Mills has closed up the 400 Thunder points margin to leader Steve Reed, giving him a hot chance at winning his first championship.
“We are just 13 points behind now so we are in a good position heading back to our home track Sydney Dragway for Gulf Western Oil Nitro Thunder in May.”
