“At 26 years of age, he may be the greatest driver this sport has ever seen,” states Steve Evans at the end of his top end interview with Pat Austin after Austin had just won top fuel, completing the first double up in NHRA national event competition. He had already won 43-national events…at age 26 and this was technically his 44th. Austin got into the seat of the Castrol top fuel driver after Gary Ormsby died and he came in hot. He nearly doubled up at Indy but his car exploded on the burnout. Topeka, Kansas would have a much different result for the guy that crew chief Lee Beard described as the “Ayrton Senna of drag racing”.
The way that Austin won was spectacular as well. His reaction time, the equivalent of a .007 today was amazing and proof that he was as hungry as anyone the sport had ever seen before or since. The other awesome thing about this is the raw emotion of his top end chat with Evans. He can barely get the words out when he talks about his dad Walt. The whole scene is awesome and it was truly Austin’s coming out party in the sport, even after his rampant success in alcohol funny car.
Joe Amato on the other side of the race track would score his second top fuel title in a row in 1991 after narrowly beating Ormsby the previous year on the very last lap of the season in Pomona. These nitro time machine pieces are fun to make and there are loads more coming!
