Lamattina's new chassis had arrived just ten days before the Nightfire Top Fuel Spectacular and with only limited preparation time, the team, led by Theo from Pavtek, performed miracles to have the Fuchs Top Fueler ready for action. It was also Phil Lamattina's first time back in a Top Fueler cockpit since his death-cheating crash back in September.

"I would be lying if I didn't say that I felt a little apprehensive getting back into the car after the accident but once I was on the start line I felt great. The buzz of driving a Top Fueler again was amazing and I had no adverse affects. When I was staring down the track on our first run, I got a flashback from the accident but it didn't affect me whatsoever. By the end of the night, the crash was totally out of my mind," said Phil.

Commenting on the first outing of the Fuchs Top Fueler, Phil said - "To have four months out of the sport and to come back at our first event as the number one qualifier is a massive effort by everybody involved with this team. Whilst our times in qualifying were not quick, I think all teams struggled with the heat."

"We narrowly missed getting to the final by two hundreds of a second but we still managed to do a 4.86 [second pass] which, considering the humid conditions was really, really pleasing."

"We had the benefit of doing the media day on Thursday at Willowbank, which allowed us to a launch off the line plus the event organisers allowed us to do a test run after the final on Saturday night. So, in total, we actually did seven passes over the event, which has given us some great data to use for our next round in Perth," Phil added.

"Speaking of the media day, I wanted to publicly thank Fox Sports, Seven National News and Sky News for the fantastic coverage they gave us on our comeback event."

The Fuchs Top Fueler is not only boasting a new chassis, but the team have also added a new fuel-clutch management system, injector hat and tyre structure to the 8000hp dragster, making it virtually a brand new race car. With the next round just three weeks away, Phil and his dedicated team are heading to Perth full of confidence but still knowing they have a lot more 'getting acquainted' to do with their new machine.