Fifteen time national Champion Gary Phillips battled the South Aussie heat to top the field in qualifying and make it through to the finals of the ANDRA Drag Racing Series Top Alcohol round in Adelaide last weekend and now has his eyes on the Santo’s Cranes Super 3 Extreme Drag Race at his home track Willowbank Raceway.

After qualifying number one with a 4.905 second pass for the 1000 feet distance, Phillips set about defeating Frank Intini in the first round and Gary Busch in the semi finals before Wayne Newby took him out of contention in the final.

“We’d performed really well considering the deal with the weather, with air temperature around 38?C (100?F) both days and track temperature peaking at 57?C (135?F) but it was always a gamble on a full asphalt surface,” he said. “To the track crew’s credit, who also fought these trying conditions all weekend, they gave us both equal lanes. Unfortunately our car went up into shake for the first time over the weekend in the final.”

Despite the less desirable runner-up result, Phillips still managed to extend his championship lead by 39 points over closest rival, Steven Reed.

“The overall performance of the car this season has been great,” he said. “Over the first three races, there’s been 54 bonus points up for grabs for low ET, top speed and top qualifying and we have claimed 52 of those 54, so the car has a whole new level of consistency that’s making this championship very rewarding.

“Even over the Adelaide weekend, we had four runs out of five that were within a tenth of a second, so that’s great for the team and for Lucas Oils, and is a testament to how well their products performed under these extreme conditions.”

The Lucas Oils team now turn their attention to their home track of Willowbank in Queensland, where the stars of ANDRA Top Alcohol contest two separate rounds over two days over the last weekend of March.

“We’ll have our work cut out for us at the Santo’s Cranes Super 3 Extreme event for sure,” Phillips said. “The pressure will be on with limited qualifying opportunities, so you have to be on it right off the trailer, but we’ve been good at that this season so hopefully it will pay into our hands.”

For more information on the event, click here.