Thu, 9 Apr 2009, 08:52 PM Double Your Pleasure, Or Should I say Triple It?

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Tommy Phillips

In the long history of the National Hot Rod Association there have only been a few drivers who have been fortunate enough, or maybe lucky enough, or maybe good enough to win in two classes at the same national event. While the phenomenon only happens every now and then, the attempt to "double-up" is something that has been going on for a long while. Mike Schmitt and his Desert Motors Ford Galaxie, for example, went to a pair of final rounds at the Bristol Springnationals back in 1966. Mike beat Al Joniec to win the Street Eliminator title and he lost to one of the greats, Jere Stahl in the finals of Top Stock. That's right, we had Top Stock back in the '60's. Even the legendary Bill Jenkins came close, making it to two final rounds at the 1968 World Finals only to lose to Fred Hurst and Dave Strickler in Modified and Super Stock respectively. And you wonder why they call him "Grumpy." Pat Austin set the table for the double-ups when he won twice in Topeka in 1991 and he did it again at that legendary Phoenix '92 race (really). That was followed by Edmond Richardson's double in a pair of carbureted cars at the 1992 Atlanta race, the first in two of the Super categories. Between 1966 and 2009 there have been a lot of racers who have tried to pull off the rare double-up, but most of them have not succeeded. Tommy Phillips is the latest and only the ninth driver to accomplish the feat, and to show that it was not just a lucky weekend, Tommy went out and won again at his next race.

Phillips and crew celebrate win.

We often talk about racers who have accomplished a lot but have not won the national championship. Doug Kalitta in Top Fuel and Ron Capps in Funny Car come to mind and Tommy Phillips should be included in that discussion. "I've been very fortunate in my racing career," he said. "I've had a great deal of success and have had almost every number you can earn next to my name, every number except the number one." Tommy shouldn't be apologetic for that since his record is among the best in the sport's history. He has won twenty-one national events in his twenty-six trips to the final round. On the divisional level he has picked up another fifteen titles to go along with a like number of runner-up finishes. Among those divisional finals are three where he made it to the money round in two classes, with the first of those coming back in 1995. He has also been a member of the Jegs All Star team four times and won it all in 1999. Add in his four Division 4 championships and it's easy to see why you can say that he is one of the best, but until Belle Rose a few weeks ago, even he hadn't pulled off the elusive double-up. "I came close last year in Topeka when I made it to two finals," he said. "But I guess it just wasn't my day." Well, Sunday in Belle Rose was his day when he picked off the Super Comp and Super Gas crowns, and he followed that up with a win at the O'Reilly Springnationals in Houston a week later. And, as hot as he seems to be over the past few weeks, Tommy has really been on a roll for a while. "My good friend, Frank Kohutek, reminded me that after the Topeka race last year I didn't run a lot of national events. In fact, the next one I went to was Las Vegas and I won that and I didn't run again until Belle Rose." In my mind that makes Tommy certifiably hot.

Phillips in his Super Gas

Tommy is known to a lot of racers as the guy who started TNT Supercars a few years ago. After building cars in his garage for a while, Tommy saw that there was a need for someone to build cars for other racers who wanted a complete, turn-key operation. "I really never thought about going into business and making a living doing this until a few years ago," he said. "I started building cars and one thing led to another and TNT Supercars was born." Tommy and his crew did such a good job building the cars that they were recently bought out by Smiley's Racing Products, a company that specializes in circle track racing. "It's worked out well for everyone involved so far," he said. By looking at the results of what Tommy and his customers have done that would be an understatement.

Phillips in his Super Comp

Tommy began racing even before he could legally drive on the street. He was about fourteen when he went with his dad to the track and he raced in the bracket classes. "Dad would be there racing his '64 Chevelle and I would actually race my mom's Cadillac." What are the odds, another racer who began his career racing a Cadillac? From there he moved up the food chain to a 1968 Camaro and then a Vega that was owned by Frank Kohutek. After that came his first real race car, a '27 roadster that he raced in Super Gas. "I never really won anything until I took one of the Division 4 winter series races back in the early '90's." And he's been winning ever since. The roadster was followed by a rear-engine dragster that he got from another friend and car builder, Joe Smith. "Joe raced a lot in the early days here in Division 4 and he builds a really good car. In fact, he's building me a '67 Camaro right now." The cars that Tommy is racing now are both from his TNT shop and both feature big block, 582 cubic inch engines. "The dragster is a 240 inch wheelbase 4 link car and it's very consistent. Both cars have engines from the folks at Sunset Racecraft." And both have become regular fixtures in the winner's circle.

Winning one race is tough, winning two is infinitely harder and Tommy admits that it takes a little bit of skill, luck and timing. "I don't know why it happened now and not before. I've been close but I guess it was just my time in Belle Rose. All of the hard work and great support that I've always had finally came together in one evening." He admits to almost losing early in Houston when he cut his first round win way to close. "I was racing (Summit Racing National Champion) Bart Nelson in the first round and I was way out in front. I decided to slow down a bit and ran 8.90 to his 8.93, but got there first by a bunch and was lucky not to break out. That's way to close for comfort in my eyes. Later in the day I had Justin Davis and got just a little deep when staging. I knew I was not where I should have been and pushed the transbrake button as hard as I could to keep from red-lighting. I had a .028 reaction time but he went red by one-thousandth. If he had been green I would have been done." Maybe there is some luck involved, but to win three races in two weeks you also have to be very good at what you do and Tommy is.

Tommy, who has a college degree in Strategic Business Management, admits to being very analytical when he races. "When I lost the second final in Topeka last year I wasn't really depressed or upset, I just tried to figure out what I did wrong. "Conversely, he says, when he doubled-up in Louisiana, it didn't actually hit him for a while just what he had accomplished. "I know it sounds funny but I was in the lanes in Houston getting ready to make a run when it finally sank in." Funny, it didn't take his fellow racers that long to realize what he had done or just how good he is. Just ask them and they'll tell you that Tommy may just be the best sportsman racer to never win the championship. The way he's running this year, though, that could all change.

Like so many other successful racers, Tommy realizes that he has had the help of a lot of people in his racing career. "I would like to say a special thanks to my wife Carrie and daughter Autumn as well as Monroe Guest and Marvin Yoder at Tigerflow Systems, Inc..

I have also had a lot of support from Steve Williams and Bob Harris at K&N Filters along with everyone at Hoosier Racing Tires and Hughes Performance. I would also like to say a HUGE thank you to all employees at TNT Supercars and Smiley's Racing Products, and last, but definitely not least...all of the great customers who support TNT Supercars."

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