ANDRA Pro Series Top Alcohol points leader Gary Phillips experienced the highs and lows of drag racing all in just a few seconds last month.
After running the quickest ever time for the category of 5.46sec, Phillips experienced a parachute failure that saw his Lucas Oil Ford Mustang crash into the sand trap at the end of the braking area of Perth Motorplex.
Despite the setback, Phillips retained his points lead and the rebuild is now on in earnest to prepare the car for the next round of the championship.
Phillips said the chassis was not too badly damaged despite the severity of the accident.
“The main chassis hasn’t been tweaked at all and repairs to the front left a-arm and rear body mounting tree are underway and will be completed soon,” he said.
Unfortunately the story was not the same for the carbon fibre body.
“The Mustang body was a complete write off and even though we still have the Monte Carlo body, we are in the process of looking at other options,” Phillips explained.
With Phillips only earning first round points after withdrawing, that left the door open for his ANDRA Pro Series rivals Adam Marchant and Wayne Newby to close the lead Phillips agined following the Fuchs Nationals in Sydney.
Phillips said anybody who can qualify at a race is a threat in eliminations.
“Wayne has always been a tough competitor and is consistently quick as usual. Adam is starting to get a handle on a combination, so the next couple of races will be interesting,” he said.
An advantage Phillips does have is the backing of Lucas Oil who have been using his Funny Car as a test bed for new ideas for over a decade.
“I have been a part of the Lucas Oil R&D process since they became my sponsor in 1997. I am in a unique position to try new products and provide subsequent feedback, which obviously puts me at an advantage,” he said.
Lucas Oil develops many racing specific products which Phillips is fortunate to have first access to.
“Lucas has a very impressive in-house testing laboratory, where new products are developed,” he said. “They are in the process of developing some new blown alcohol/nitro oil in addition to their already outstanding 50 and 70 weight racing oil and we will be testing it soon.
“Lucas has fantastic products and the opportunity to use them is an honour.”
Phillips is recognised as not only a top driver but also a master tuner in both the Top Alcohol and Top Doorslammer categories of the ANDRA Pro Series, not going through the tribulations of many others in hurting parts.
“I pride myself on going as quick and as fast as I can without hurting parts. I try to live up to Lucas’ motto of ‘Keep That Engine Alive’,” he said.
“A good example of this happened just recently. I put a new crankshaft in the Funny Car a while back and over time it had done 51 runs. During that whole time, that motor had not been out of the chassis, because the journals always looked perfect. Prior to Perth, I took it out purely out of guilt.
“Being as superstitious as I am, I know better than to talk about how many runs I have done without hurting it but put it this way, it is a lot!”
The 5.46sec run by Phillips was the first official Top Alcohol pass in the 5.4sec zone and the result of plenty of hard work from the Lucas Oil team.
“One of the positives that came out of the crash was that we were able to get the Racepak (logger) data and that looked very promising,” he said. “During the last year we had been trialling some different things in the car and while we were running quick and fast, we were having some clutch consistency issues.
“In Sydney we sorted that out and in Perth we were consistent again running 5.54sec and a 5.46sec. We don’t know yet how much more is left, but I guess time will tell.”
The ANDRA Pro Series is Australia’s premier drag racing championship. For more information go to www.andra.com.au.
