NHRA News: Australian racer Cowin set for Top Fuel return in Indianapolis (8/16/2004)

Australian racer Cowin set for Top Fuel return in Indianapolis

Contributed by Gerald McDornan
8/16/2004

"The goal is to have fun with our racing."
– Andrew Cowin

Champion Australian Top Fuel racer Andrew Cowin will make a return to the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series at the historic 50th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, which run from Sept. 1-6 at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indianapolis. The Cowin Family Racing team will contest the final six events of the season.

The announcement marks Cowin's return to NHRA competition for the first time since March 2003 when he suffered serious and life-threatening head injuries in a non-racing related fall in Tennessee. At the time, Cowin was driving for Mark and Andy Carrier. Previously, he'd campaigned a car for Darrell Gwynn Racing and his own family. Overall, Cowin has run at 57 national events with three runner-up finishes to his credit.

"After being given a 50-50 chance of surviving the night of the fall, I am looking at this as my second chance in life," Cowin said. "The accident is now well and truly behind me, but I am not taking anything for granted. I'll be making sure I stop to smell the roses at every opportunity I get.

The Cowin Family Racing team fires up their
race car during a recent engine test.

"Competing against the world's best drag racers in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series is one of those opportunities, so the goal is to have fun with our racing, be as competitive as possible and thoroughly enjoy the experience."

Cowin, who resigned his position with Carrier Boyz Racing following the accident to return to Australia and fully recover from the injuries under the watchful eyes of his parents, Graeme and Wendy Cowin, said he was delighted to again be racing with his family team.

He's confident that this time around his family has been able to put together a stronger program than the one that took them to two final rounds in three part-time seasons on the tour from 1999-2001, including the U.S. Nationals in '99, which is where he made his professional debut.

"We have a brand new McKinney chassis, all of the latest parts, and our team, which is a mixture of Americans and Australians, is young, keen, and full of enthusiasm," he said. "Keith Stewart has joined us from Kalitta Motorsport and he is in charge of the crew and responsible for day-to-day operations. His appointment has freed up my dad to concentrate on tuning the racecar, and we have already seen other benefits with the team doing such an outstanding job preparing for our return."

Cowin Family Racing has joined with veteran NHRA team owner Bill Blomgren, of Geronimo fame, for this year and has its base at his race shop in Santa Clarita, Calif. It is also using Blomgren's tractor-trailer.

"The hospitality Bill has shown us in the time we have been here has been incredible and it has been especially comforting for the members of our team that have come from the other side of the world," Cowin said. "For that, we can't think Bill enough."

Cowin has three runner-up finishes and
4.4-second experience on his resume.

In his time away from NHRA competition, Cowin has served as co-crew chief with his father for twin brother John's Top Fuel campaign back home.

"We had a lot of success," Cowin said. "John won the ANDRA Australian Top Fuel Championship, ran the card at each event we attended, and set the [Australian] speed record to more than 321 mph."

Andrew has twice driven the family's Rocket Industries this year, recording the first four-second elapsed time at the new Western Sydney International Dragway in February and taking part in a match race in Perth, Western Australia, in March.

Andrew's record-setting career began in a blaze of glory when as a 17-year-old in 1997 he licensed in his father's Rocket Industries dragster, setting an elapsed time of 4.92 seconds – an Australian record.

During three part-time seasons on the NHRA tour, Andrew set numerous national and international records in his K&N Filters/Cowin Family Racing dragster, including the quickest and fastest run by a teenager (4.58 seconds at 313 mph) and, at just 19-years-old, the youngest U.S. Nationals Top Fuel finalist. Both records still stand today.

Former Kalitta Motorsports wrench Keith Stewart
will oversee the Cowin Family dragster.

Andrew was named Drag Racer of the Year at the prestigious 2000 Australian MotorSport Awards, was runner-up to Formula 1 star Mark Webber for the Motorsportsman of the Year in his native country, and was also presented an Australian Sports Medal by the Governor General for outstanding international sporting achievement.

In 2002, Andrew completed his first full-time season on the NHRA POWERade tour, finishing eighth in championship standings while driving for Gwynn's NY Yankees-backed team. He also recorded the then fourth quickest run of all time at 4.490 seconds at the season-opening K&N Filters Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., that run standing as low elapsed time for the entire year.

In June '02, Andrew returned home for a one-off appearance with his family team and became the first racer outside the U.S. to break the 500-kmh and 310-mph barriers with a 4.75 second blast at 506 kmh (314 mph) at Willowbank Raceway, near Brisbane.

After losing his Yankees ride due to a team funding issues just weeks before the start of the 2003 season, Andrew joined the newly formed Carrier Boyz Racing team in time for the season-opening K&N Filters Winternationals.

Cowin long-awaited return to the seat begins at the official Mac Tools U.S. Nationals test session August 24-25 at IRP.

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