The incident was one of the most violent even seen in drag racing with the dragster splitting in two as it crossed the finished line at maximum terminal speed. Phil was full of praise for the safety of both his race car and the rapid response of the officials that attended the scene.

"I'm alive today because of the meticulous safety that goes into drag racing cars. There was basically nothing left of our car but I still managed to walk away with only a headache and some concussion," said Phil.

Lamattina was briefly knocked unconscious by the force of the 500 kph smash but after a night of hospital observation, was given a clean bill of health today.

"I can only remember a couple of things. The first was seeing the dash [of the race car] heading towards the sky and the second was telling the safety officials to get me out of the car. The officials are a testament to the safety of our sport. They were helping me basically as soon as the wreck stopped rolling and if something had of gone wrong, they were right there."

Commenting on the extent of the damage to the Fuchs Top Fueler, Phil added - "The car is in a million bits and it won't race again. I'm not sure what we can salvage or even what our options are for another car, we'll have a look at that sometime this week. Right now I'm just lucky enough to be alive."

Lamattina Top Fuel Racing would like to extend their gratitude to the team's sponsors and fans for the massive show of support after the crash. Further details on the future of the team's top fuel championship season will be provided in the coming days.

Lamattina Top Fuel Racing is backed by Fuchs Lubricants and 'Australia's Favourite Carrots' - Rocky Lamattina & Sons, as well as Pavtek, Wing Flexible Packaging, CRC and Mulqueen Creative.