InsideTopAlcohol

InsideTopAlcohol

19 Times Australian Champion, Gary Phillips has continued to celebrate an outstanding 20 years of partnership with Lucas Oil, by claiming victory in his Lucas Oil 1953 Studebaker Pro Slammer, at last weekend's Nitro Thunder event at Sydney Dragway.

After making significant changes to the car's suspension set up, the team was rewarded with their first ever runs into the 5.7 second zone (with a 5.760 and a final round winning 5.722).

"We fitted the latest shock technology available from JRi to the car, and instantly saw an improvement. It's a dream to drive now ", said Phillips.

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The first round saw Gary turn on the win light with a 6.13 at 244 after some tyre shake and a big pedal. The team was excited after seeing some promising early data, along with a .981 sixty foot time, and proceeded to make the necessary changes to the set up for the second round. The changes worked well in the second round, with a 5.76 at 246mph showing on the scoreboard.

"As we said in our pre-event media release, we've known that we had the power to run quick, it was just our suspension set up that was letting us down. We were going to chase our early incrementals, and were rewarded well."

Eager to back up the second round performance, some other small changes were made and after running 3.77 at 203mph to the eighth mile, Gary stopped the finish line clocks in 5.722 seconds at 249mph, to take the final round win over Victor Bray. This now makes Gary the 3rd quickest Slammer in Australia, behind only John Zappia and Ben Bray. The win also puts Gary into 2nd place in the 400 Thunder Championship, just 39 points behind the leader, Mark Belleri, with one event remaining.

Gary and his Lucas Oil team were pulling double duty on the weekend, competing with the Pro Alcohol Funny Car as well. After laying down low ET and top speed of the event in the first round of racing with a 5.42 at 266mph, the team missed the setup for the ever changing track conditions for...
HOUSTON (April 23) -- Mia Tedesco made a name for herself last year by becoming the first female driver in class history to win a world title in Super Gas. But "Miss Mia" also is a talented Top Alcohol Dragster driver, as witnessed by her impressive runner-up finish Sunday at the 30th annual NHRA Spring Nationals.

"Coming in with a new car this year and figuring out the bugs, if they had told me we'd go to a final this early in the season I would have taken that in a heartbeat," Tedesco said. "We are very pleased, especially after making the quickest and fastest pass we've ever had in this particular car. It was just a great weekend. Only one person is happier than we are at this point, and that's Joey (Severence)."

Severance simply had the better racecar this weekend. With the trophy on the line, the event's top qualifier beat No. 2 qualifier Tedesco with a stout 5.203 at 275.39 mph to Tedesco's 5.445 at 264.70 mph.

"Joey made a fantastic run just now that would have been hard to beat under any circumstances," Tedesco said. "After the pedalfest against Megan (Meyer) in the semifinals so we knew we had to back it down a little bit to try to get from A-to-B and take a shot at beating Severence. It was hard to get everything together in time for the finals but we did and we ended up having a good race. He was just too much for us today."

Tedesco started strong in the first round of eliminations Saturday night, easily beating 15th-ranked qualifier Karl Brounkowski with a 5.368 at 267.37 mph to Brounkowski's 5.619 at 241.41 mph.

An overnight cooling trend allowed for Tedesco's CARS Vehicle Service Contracts/Schepel Motors/NGK/Lucas Oil race team to tune up her dragster even more and she responded with a streaking 5.218 at 272.61 mph to beat Alan Bradshaw, who shutoff early and drifted to a 7.284 at 150.85 mph.

"Conditions were really good that round," Tedesco said. "The track also was really good. I heard some of the Top Fuel and Funny Car making...
HOUSTON (April 23) -- Mia Tedesco made a name for herself last year by becoming the first female driver in class history to win a world title in Super Gas. But "Miss Mia" also is a talented Top Alcohol Dragster driver, as witnessed by her impressive runner-up finish Sunday at the 30th annual NHRA Spring Nationals.

"Coming in with a new car this year and figuring out the bugs, if they had told me we'd go to a final this early in the season I would have taken that in a heartbeat," Tedesco said. "We are very pleased, especially after making the quickest and fastest pass we've ever had in this particular car. It was just a great weekend. Only one person is happier than we are at this point, and that's Joey (Severence)."

Severance simply had the better racecar this weekend. With the trophy on the line, the event's top qualifier beat No. 2 qualifier Tedesco with a stout 5.203 at 275.39 mph to Tedesco's 5.445 at 264.70 mph.

"Joey made a fantastic run just now that would have been hard to beat under any circumstances," Tedesco said. "After the pedalfest against Megan (Meyer) in the semifinals so we knew we had to back it down a little bit to try to get from A-to-B and take a shot at beating Severence. It was hard to get everything together in time for the finals but we did and we ended up having a good race. He was just too much for us today."

Tedesco started strong in the first round of eliminations Saturday night, easily beating 15th-ranked qualifier Karl Brounkowski with a 5.368 at 267.37 mph to Brounkowski's 5.619 at 241.41 mph.

An overnight cooling trend allowed for Tedesco's CARS Vehicle Service Contracts/Schepel Motors/NGK/Lucas Oil race team to tune up her dragster even more and she responded with a streaking 5.218 at 272.61 mph to beat Alan Bradshaw, who shutoff early and drifted to a 7.284 at 150.85 mph.

"Conditions were really good that round," Tedesco said. "The track also was really good. I heard some of the Top Fuel and Funny Car making...