Australian Top Doorslammer Champion Gary Phillips was viciously defending a narrow points lead over West Australian John Zappia going into the final rounds, but he had a bit of West Aussie help on his side too.

His WA-based crew of brothers John and Kevin Lloyd were vital in securing the championship, travelling with Phillips to every round of the series and supporting his Lucas Oils Studebaker Top Doorslammer.

Phillips said consistency was needed to take out the championship and this came through quality pit crew.

"I would be lost without them," he said. "It's taken a load of my shoulders and our good reliability record shows the quality control of the crew."

John Lloyd, known among WA performance circles for his business Street Quick, said they were brought on by Phillips because of their intensive knowledge on supercharged sedans, particularly those of the 3000 horsepower supercharged variety.

"Doored cars are all individuals," he said. "There are some philosophies the same but they all need to be caressed in different ways."

John concentrates on the engine work while Kevin looks after the clutch on the car.

Phillips said a cast of thousands to work on the car was not necessary as long as quality was kept up.

He has won around a dozen Top Alcohol national championships in his time, but this was his first Top Doorslammer one.

"It was about time we got it," he said. "We haven't finished worse than fourth in the Top Doorslammer championship in eight years."

Phillips said getting qualifying runs right helped enormously in taking the championship.

"Making the first run count was important," he said. "If you lose the first run then you are trying so hard to catch up that you can make mistakes.

"We're taking advantage of a points system that rewards consistency, ours is a proven 6.0sec. car but we do not always need to run it that hard, we'll have to be forced by the other racers to go faster."

Also coming shortly for Phillips is a new car for his Top Alcohol campaign, a Chevrolet Monte Carlo Funny Car.

A Funny Car is a racing chassis with a supercharged, methanol-fuelled engine in the middle and the driver sitting behind, sheathed in a carbon fibre or fibreglass body.

"We hope to start testing in the next week," he said. "We didn't race the car at the Winternationals because we needed to concentrate on getting the Doorslammer right."

Phillips said the fuel system and some minor modifications to the body were all that was needed to be completed on the car, which should run times of 5.5sec. for the quarter mile at over 400kmh.

The car will be seen in WA later this year at the Australian Top Alcohol Championship round in November.