NHRA News: Austin Coil: Hands down, the best crew chief in drag racing history (12/13/2002)

Austin Coil: Hands down, the best crew chief in drag racing history

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
12/13/2002

"The multi-car deal brings more money to the table. So I'm hoping for four or five or six cars."
– Austin Coil

Whenever 12-time NHRA champion John Force needs a new goal to reach, he need look no further than his own team and crew chief Austin Coil. The 57-year-old drag racing legend has more victories, 113 to 106, and more championships, 14 to 12, than his better-known boss and considering the fact he's tuned Force to every single one of his wins, it seems highly unlikely the man usually regarded as the sport's all-time wins leader will ever close the gap on the sport's real all-time wins leader.

Since 1967 and the days of his legendary Chi-Town Hustler, Coil has been the best in the business. His relentless pursuit of the perfect tune-up and his willingness to push the envelope every time he sends a car down the track has added up to a spectacular career, one he says is a long way from over.

In this revealing question and answer session, Coil, a former mechanic at a car dealership in Chicago, talks about the challenges he faces each year as the tuning patriarch of Force's massive three-car operation, his motivation, and his relationship with Force, which began in 1984, among numerous other topics.

Q: How have you managed to maintain your level of competitiveness?
Coil: The best never rest. What can you say? Every time you do well, you get more resources. You get a bigger team, you get more help, and you get more money. That means if you're up to the task and you're just as hungry as you were once upon a time, then the chances that you can do well next year are even better. You have to stay hungry. In this business, it doesn't take but a couple of years for people to forget what you did. I don't want to fall into that category quite yet.

Drag racing's most prolific pair, left, John Force and Austin Coil, celebrating win No. 100 earlier this year in Houston.

Q: What's the biggest challenge facing crew chiefs these days?
Coil: Traction. The new tires are certainly more challenging than the old ones were. You have the clutch disc roulette. There's always some difference in them. It's a juggling act. Man, it's kind of like trying to balance a pole on the end of your finger. Sometimes you manage to keep it up there a long time – but it isn't because it's easy.

Q: How do you personally stay abreast of the advancing technology?
Coil: We work at it all the time. We have projects going that we know we can't finish within the next year but we have to keep looking to the future. And you know, half of the time the new projects are canceled by the rules committee before we get a chance to try 'em but we have to keep trying. You have to try to stay at the front of the pack.

Q: Would your secret tuning formula work on a low budget team?
Coil: Oh, I suppose our tuning formula would work fine for anybody. You know, the thing is, it's a mighty tough deal. Some days you go out and run and run and run and don't hurt anything. And some days, every time you push the starter button, everything turns to junk. The low budget guys obviously can't try as hard as we do but I think they could use the same combination. Although they probably wouldn't be able to make it perform as many runs in a row as we do because we kind of run under the deal that the most important thing is winning and we focus on that.

A pair of low-key guys, Coil, right, talks shop with fellow drag racing legend Don "the Snake" Prudhomme.

Q: What challenges do a multi-car team present?
Coil: Well, every time you add another car, you add another 10 people or so to the organization. And to have 10 people that can work together is tough. To have 20 people that can work together is tougher. To have 30 people that can work together is really tough. And we've been pretty fortunate with the guys who have come along here. Jimmy Prock and Dickie Venables being the two keys that joined the team most recently seem to have become team players and fallen right in with the deal and I think we all work real well together. And the crew guys, well we lose a few of 'em every year but that's just part of the game. We train a few more and life goes on. The key guys that matter are all still here so things are good.

Q: How much input do you have on the other two cars in your camp?
Coil: Some. Like we all sit and discuss the tune-up on all three cars every week. When we're between rounds at the races, frequently there isn't time. Sometimes there is. Generally, when we can, we all take a look at the data from all three cars and we all give our two-cents worth on what to do to make it better. Unless we're going to race each other next round and then we're kind of hiding in our own little corner, so to speak.

Q: If you had it your way, would you just race one car?
Coil: No. I'll tell you the multi-car deal brings a lot more information to the table. And that information helps us do better. Also, it brings more money to the table. And Force has stood by me all these years, as the money gets better for him, the money gets better for me. So I'm hoping for four or five or six cars.

Coil has been named Funny Car Crew Chief of the Year 12 consecutive times by the readers of Car Craft Magazine.

Q: What motivates you?
Coil: Well, success. It's like you look around, drag racing is a lot like golf – millions of people do it but only a few make a real good living at it. I've been fortunate enough to have the right circumstances happen around me to where I'm one of those few and I feel like it wouldn't take too long a period of non-motivation and you could fall right out of that situation and be one of the guys out there that are unemployed. And you know you look around and there are some guys that have been at the top of their game who currently are not in demand. Well, I sure don't want that to happen to me even though I feel like as long as John's alive, I have a job for life. But you still like to feel like you're worth it.

Q: It seems like you'll never stop. When does time run out for Austin Coil?
Coil: Well, not yet, and I guess that's all I can say for sure. I have no plans or retiring although at some point as time goes by there are a few things that are going to be important in my life. There's a couple of things I want to do that kind of interfere with the race schedule and somehow I'm going to fit 'em in before I'm 70 – a motorcycle tour of the Swiss Alps and a vacation in the fall in Italy. Some things like that I want to do but, in all honesty, I think a guy could fit those in between the races.

Q: What did you see in John all those years ago?
Coil: John has the ability to dig deep when the chips are down. The other drivers I've worked with over all the years with the Chi-Town Hustler, you know, would do a pretty good job of driving until you go to that critical round. And in that critical round, instead of finding a little more, they managed to find a whole lot less. John could have .500 lights all day and when it gets down to where he has to have that .440 or .450 to win the round, he finds it. He's the only driver I've ever worked with who has that ability.

Q: Is it still there?
Coil: Absolutely it's still there. You talk about age, well, the last count I knew George Hoover still was actively chiefing his kid's racecar when he was 91 years old and 'the Greek' [Chris Karamesines] is still actively driving and, in my opinion, doing a damn good job, and he turned 74 just last month. So there's no telling when me and John, you know, have to say we've had enough. It could be quite awhile.

Dave Densmore contributed to this story, which is copyright 2002 National Hot Rod Association. It may not be reprinted or retransmitted in any form without the express written permission of NHRA.com.

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