Austin Seeks Double Play at Pomona

Gary Ormsby’s name is still on the sides of the distinctive green, white and red top-fuel dragster that won the Heartland Nationals last month in one of the most dramatic moments in National Hot Rod Assn. history, but the man in the driver’s seat was young Pat Austin.

Austin, 26, became the first person to win two eliminator titles on the same day when he drove his dragster through the quarter-mile in 4.97 seconds and defeated three-time Winston champion Joe Amato on the Topeka, Kan., strip. A few minutes earlier, he had won the alcohol funny-car final.

It was only the third time Austin, a former high school football and track and field athlete from Tacoma, Wash., had driven a top-fuel dragster, a nitro-burning monster in drag racing’s top-of-the-line class.

Austin will try to repeat his feat this weekend in the 27th annual Winston Finals, last event of the 18-race NHRA season, at the Pomona Fairplex.

Ormsby, holder of the single-run record of 296.05 m.p.h. and winner of the 1989 world top-fuel championship, died of cancer Aug. 28, the day before the U.S. Nationals began in Indianapolis.

Austin drove his first race in Ormsby’s car that weekend, narrowly missing a victory.

“We really wanted to win Indy for Gary,” Austin said. “Every time I get in the car, my thoughts are to drive the way he would want me to drive. I try to keep the standards for the car that Gary set. I think he would be happy with the way the car is operating now.”

Moments before the final run against Kenny Bernstein, Austin’s dragster suffered a blower backfire during a burnout--a spinning of the rear wheels to heat and clean tire rubber before a run. Bernstein, even though he lost time smoking his tires, cruised to a solo victory.

“It was a rookie mistake,” Austin admitted. “Doing a burnout in a top fueler is different from an alcohol funny car. After I hit the throttle, I backed off, but the tires had hooked up, so I hit it again. Right then, I said to myself, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this.’

“There is a big weight difference in the cars. In a funny car, you sit right over the tires and you can feel them. In a fueler, the motor is over the rear tires, and it makes the rear end feel heavy. When Bernstein smoked his tires, it just made me feel worse because we could have won.”

Fan response to Austin’s bid at Indianapolis was enthusiastic, but some of the veteran drivers were not too pleased when the youngster was quoted in National Dragster, the sport’s bible, as saying: “I guarantee that I will not only win with the top fueler before the season is over, but I’ll win with both cars at the same race.”

Big words for a 26-year-old in a world of aging contemporaries. Amato is 47, Bernstein 46, Dick LaHaie 49, Don Prudhomme 50, Shirley Muldowney 51, Gene Snow 53 and Eddie Hill 55.

In his next top-fuel event, the Keystone Nationals at Reading, Pa., Austin lost in the first round. When his car rolled to a stop, Don Garlits, Big Daddy of drag racing, was waiting with a microphone.

“I was still pulling off my helmet when Garlits stuck the mike in my face and said, ‘Hey, son, welcome to reality,’ ” Austin said. “I’ll never forget that smirk he had on his face as he said it.

“I feel kind of bad about the way I was quoted. I’m not saying I was misquoted. Maybe I just didn’t say it right, but what I meant was that if any two crews could do it (win two events at the same meet), then the two I have could do it.”

The top-fuel crew, directed by Lee Beard, came with the car from Ormsby when Austin’s father, Walt, negotiated to buy the assets of the team after learning Ormsby would not resume racing.

“It all happened so fast, it was crazy,” Austin said. “I’d thought about moving from alky to nitro funny cars as far back as 1988, but I’d never given a thought to a fueler. I gave up on driving a nitro funny car when John Force won the championship. He was my Castrol teammate, and I knew they wouldn’t let him get away.

“Then when Gary (Ormsby) got sick, the Castrol people asked if I’d be interested in driving, but when my dad heard that Lee Beard wanted someone more Ormsby’s size and with more experience, he advised against it. He said it could be a bad environment for a 300-m.p.h. ride when the crew didn’t want you.”

Ormsby was 5 feet 7, 150 pounds. Austin, a two-time state prep shotput champion at Franklin Pierce High in Tacoma and an all-state center and defensive tackle in football, is 6 feet, 209 pounds--down from the 260 he weighed when he started racing in 1983.

Veteran Gordie Bonin, who easily fit into Ormsby’s seat, was named to drive at Seattle, where he reached the semifinals before losing to Amato.

“I figured Bonin would finish the season, so I forgot about it and went back to having fun working with my alky funny car,” Austin said. “Before I could relax, we heard that Ormsby wanted to sell the team, and Castrol asked my dad if he’d be interested. It happened so fast my head is still spinning. The car was in our shop in Tacoma that Friday, and the next weekend I took my test to get a top-fuel license.”

Austin, whose alcohol funny car victory at Topeka was the 43rd of his career, moved through the top-fuel eliminations that same day with one of the most remarkable series of off-the-line reaction times in the sport’s annals. Reaction times are measured in thousandths of a second, with 0.399 meaning you reacted too soon and are disqualified, and 0.450 considered good.

Austin’s times were 0.435 in the first round, followed by 0.430, 0.411 against Tom McEwen and 0.407 in the final against Amato.

“The ‘Goose was tough,” Austin recalled of McEwen. “He ran quicker than we did, 5.04 to 5.05, but when we cut that 0.411, we got him on the hole shot. We’d run against each other twice in qualifying, and he beat us both times.

“When (brother) Mike and I were little kids, we’d race on our bikes, and Mike would pretend he was Snake (Prudhomme) and I would be Mongoose (McEwen). I didn’t win very often. Then, to go to Indianapolis and get to race against a guy who was my hero when I was in grade school, I consider quite an honor.”

Against Amato, Austin ran the first sub-five-second run of his career, a 4.97 clocking, but the youngster’s victory was not without an anxious moment.

“After I won with my alcohol car, I hopped on a motorbike and tried to collect my thoughts riding back to the starting line for the top-fuel final,” he said. “When I got there, I didn’t see my car. Amato was already in line and I thought, ‘What’s the matter?’ and I went racing to my pits. I was really panicked, but Lee (Beard) told me to calm down, that we had plenty of time.”

Since he drove in his first race in the Cajun Nationals in 1985, Austin has won 43 alcohol funny car events and one top fuel. His total of 44 is second only to Bob Glidden, who has won 80, all in pro stock.

Chris Martin, drag racing’s chief historian, says flatly: “Pat Austin is the best young driver to ever come down the pike.”

Next year, Austin plans to make a season of running two cars.

“I want to try and win two world championships in the same year,” he said. “I’ve won four in alcohol funny cars (1987, 1988, 1990 and this year), but I think two in a season would be great.”

THE SOUND AND FURY The Winston Finals, the last stop in the Winston Drag Racing Series, will be today through Sunday at Pomona Raceway. In 1990, the top fuel season championship was not decided until the final round, when Joe Amato beat Gary Ormsby. This year, the season championships for all three professional-car categories are still undecided. THE SPORT Drag racing involves a series of elimination heats between cars racing two at a time from a standing start over a straight-line, quarter-mile course. There are 12 basic categories, depending on engine size, type of fuel, vehicle weight, modifications and aerodynamics. Here’s a look at the three fully professional categories for cars--top fuel, funny car and pro stock. TOP FUEL No piston-driven machine accelerates faster than top fuel dragsters. They can go from a standing start to more than 290 m.p.h. in less than five seconds over the quarter-mile course. For each run, the rear-mounted, 4,500-horsepower engines burn up to 12 gallons of nitromethane, a high-powered fuel mixture that costs about $55 a gallon. Rear tires, about $1,500 a pair, might last three runs, in part because of the burn-out period before the race when tires are spun at high r.p.m. to heat the rubber and provide better traction. An extended front end gives the cars a wheelbase of about 300 inches. A parachute, which the driver activates by hand, is the primary braking system, though there are rear-wheel brakes as well. It can take up to 1,200 feet to bring the car to a halt. In the quarter-mile * Speed: 290 m.p.h. * Time: Less than 5 seconds FUNNY CAR These cars are powered by the same type of engine as the top fuel dragsters, but they have a shorter wheelbase (about 124 inches) and fiberglass bodies similar to those on production cars. The engine is mounted in the front and also is fueled by nitromethane. Optimum speed and time over the quarter-mile: about 290 m.p.h. in 5.1 seconds. In the quarter-mile * Speed: 290 m.p.h. * Time: about 5.1 seconds PRO STOCK The cars resemble their showroom counterparts, but extensive modifications to the engine, chassis and suspension transform them into something altogether different. Maximum engine displacement is 500 cubic inches, with 1,500 to 1,700 horsepower. They run on gasoline. Optimum speed and time over the quarter-mile: about 190 m.p.h. in 7 seconds. In the quarter-mile * Speed: 190 m.p.h. * Time: about 7 seconds Source: National Hot Rod Assn. THE NOISE Ear plugs are a big part of drag racing. A look at how the noise from a top fuel dragster compares to:

Jet aircraft at takeoff, at close range 140 decibels 140 is level of potential eardrum rupture Top fuel dragster, at 50 feet 115 decibels World Series crowd 115 decibels Peak level in the Metrodome after homer by Twins Amplified rock band (Indoor) 110 decibels Circular saw 100 decibels Newspaper printing press 97 decibels Freeway traffic (50 feet away) 76 decibels Whispering 20 decibels

Source: World Book Encyclopedia and National Hot Rod Assn.