Last week, we shared with you the video of Australian Top Doorslammer racer Gary Phillips’ unfortunate incident at the Sydney Dragway, in which fluid under the tires sent his brand spanking new Lucas Oil Chevy Camaro hard into the wall, virtually destroying the supercharged race car before it ever turned a wheel in official competition. For Phillips, who is the Australian version of Frank Manzo with an umpteen number of Top Alcohol championships to his credit over the years, the excursion in Sydney wasn’t his first rodeo of this sort, nor was it the worst he’s ever ridden out, because when you spend as many years in racing as Phillips has, you’re bound to have some bad days.

Nearly 30 years ago, back in 1985, Phillips brought his talents over to the United States to do battle with the best of the best in the NHRA fuel Funny Car ranks, at a time when Kenny Bernstein, Ed McCullough, and Don Prudhomme were ruling the class. While driving a flopper owned by Bill Dunlap, Phillips had one particular outing that he would certainly never forget.

At the Springnationals that year at National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Phillips found himself sailing over what is famously known as Refugee Road and into the yard of neighbor Herb White after his nitro burning machine lit up into a raging inferno in the lights. Quickly, the body melted away and folded up over the chassis, leaving Phillips with little, if any, view of where he was headed, thus requiring him to steer the crippled and burning flopper by instinct alone. Because of the short runoff at National Trail, there was little chance of Phillips bringing the car to a stop within the property — fortunately, that’s why the track had devised the plan to close the road and extend the runoff into White’s yard years earlier.

This bring a whole new meaning to the phrase, “hitting one out of the ballpark.”