Austin Coil, the mechanical mastermind behind every single one of John Force’s NHRA National event wins and championships has resigned from the team for unspecified reasons only days after he led the Castrol GTX team to a 15th NHRA Funny Car Championship. Coil joined Force in 1985 and it took them a couple years to find the winning combo.
It was the 1987 Le Grandnational held at Quebec’s Sanair Raceway that brought Force and Coil their first win together. This was a race that ironically was not televised, a point that the media loving Force likes to highlight when remembering that weekend.
Force’s larger than life personality and Coil’s no bullshit Chicago attitude were perfect for one another and terrifying for opponents. No team blew more stuff up in amazing fashion or won more races in the 1990s than Force’s. The races they didn’t win were often marked by spectacular fires, crashes, or explosions as Coil had a budget that allowed him to push the envelope and Force had a persona that needed the dramatic stuff to grow.
It should be mentioned that Coil had earned NHRA championships as a crew chief before hooking up with Force. In 1982 and 1983 he tuned the fearsome Chi-Town Hustler to NHRA Funny Car Championships with Frank Hawley behind the wheel. The “Hustler” had been a match race machine for more than 10 years before heading onto the NHRA tour as match race dates dried up.
Coil claims that he will “screw off” for a while and “probably” come back to racing in 2012. His wife Lisa is a capable fuel altered pilot who has designs to go nostalgia flopper racing. He intimates in an NHRA story that he’s like to tune a car that she’s driving, provided that it is a top shelf ride. Since the man has earned several million dollars on his own, it seems he could have one of those if he wanted.
Losing Coil will be tough for team Force but the fact is, they still have the greatest brain trust of nitro tuning experience in the world contained in that group. Don’t shed too many tears, they’ll be front runners again in 2011.
Source — NHRA.com — Coil Resigns from Force Racing
