ROARING FORTIES COLLIDE FOR PHILLIPS
23 March 2011
Two forty-year old Australian drag racing legacies collided last weekend as fifteen time national champion Gary Phillips celebrated four decades in the sport at the 40th Annual Westernationals at the Perth Motorplex.
Turn back the clock forty years, and on opposite sides of the nation, two drag racing icons were being birthed simultaneously, with the advent of a young apprentice radio and television technician from Townsville taking his first looks at the quarter mile on the eastern seaboard, while a courageous group of racers in the west were at the same time forming a fledgling event that would be boldly titled "The Westernationals."