Walt Austin Racing... There's More to WAR than Winning
Story By David Marin

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1967 was a banner year for Walt and a “crossroads” year as well. His team once again hit that magic 90-percent victory mark, won the NHRA Division 6 points championship, but things were changing.

“Racing in the early years was some-thing that I loved to do,” Walt says. “But I was just a working guy; my wife Sharon was always supportive of my racing and I had three kids (Mike, Pat and Debbie) to think about. Funny Cars were the coming thing and gas cars were getting harder to sell, so after 12 years of racing I was think-ing about quitting."

Walt’s decision was facilitated when his dad, who owned a small radiator shop, asked him to come to work as a partner.

“Dad ran his shop himself, no employ-ees,” he says. “He didn’t ask me to quit racing but he did say that if I would put as much energy and thought into most any business as I put into racing that I would become a millionaire.”

So at the end of the 1967 racing season Walt sold all his racing stuff and went into business with his Dad.

“Dad died one year later and I did ex-actly what he said, and fortunately things turned out the way he said they would.”

Walt was back in 1969, building an engine for his friend Dave Grassi’s AA/GD and serving as Crew Chief at the Winter Nationals in Pomona, CA. They ran high 7:50s at 198MPH and won Top Gas Eliminator then went on to win Division 6 in ’69.

Late into the 1971 season Walt built a twin 464-inch HEMI powered dragster called “Black Jack”.

“Rich Rogers was again the driver,” Walt says. “The first full run we set an NHRA speed record at 206.42MPH.

The next race was in Spokane, WA and we broke a motor, then we went to Boise and didn’t run well. When we went home I checked the mags (magnetos) and so forth but nothing was wrong. When we went to Portland the car died leaving the start-ing line and I finally found the problem. Someone had poured molasses in the fuel tank at Boise and it plugged the nozzles.”

Walt’s team then went to the last race of 1971, the Super Nationals at Ontario, CA. They tied for low qualifying ET at 7.32 and had top MPH at 206.42. “All the hitters were there and we lost in the first round to Kenny Ellis who was subsequently disqualified for cheating,” Walt adds. “He was out of class by 400-500 pounds.”

The remainder of the Seventies through 1983 Walt again withdrew from racing. His business was growing, his kids were involved in sports and other activities and he had little in the way of spare time.

“Then in 1983 I ended up owning a late 1970s Fuel Funny Car and parts which I planned on selling. At the same time I met Top Alcohol dragster owner and driver Bob Gage who had a 426 Funny Car engine,” Walt says. “We decided to put his engine in the car and race it some. I had not raced in 10 years but Bob, who was our driver, was a lot of help.”

Walt’s sons Mike and Pat were out of school by this time and they helped on the car and they wanted to race. Walt had a Funny Car built by Al Swindahl and things began to get serious.:

“It was 1984 and we had formed the Northwest Funny Car Association,” Walt relates. “There were 14-16 cars and we had a five or six race series. We won the points championship as well as the A.D.R.A. (American Drag Racing Association) World Championship. The car was running good so we decided to go to Fremont, CA for a big Funny Car race. We ended up racing Brad Anderson in the final and we beat him. Brad got out of his car and said, “That will not happen again”. That was the start of our rivalry. It went on for several years and I think it was one of the greatest rivalries in drag racing history."

In 1985 Bob Gage stepped away from racing due to business commitments and Pat Austin, who had been racing and win-ning in a bracket dragster wanted to drive the Funny Car and took over the driving duties.

The rest is history. John Gardella picked Austin as the Top Alcohol Funny Car team for Castrol, a partnership that was to go on for 11 years and would win many division races and championships.

“Because of our national commitment to Castrol we could not race our normal Division 6 points races during those years,” Walt says. “But every year that we claimed the Division 6 we won the championship. We always came home for the Seattle and Woodburn points races and I don’t think we ever lost a points race in that time pe-riod at those tracks.”

Walt also notes that to the best of his knowledge there has been only one match race in the Northwest in the past 25 years.

“That was between Pat and (Walt’s brother) Bucky back in 1989,” Walt says. “Pat won three straight. We have beat Bucky 95-percent of the races and there have been quite a few.”

Over the ensuing years Walt, Pat and Mike raced very successfully, but contin-ued to scale back on the number of races.

Walt sold his business, Walt’s Radia-tor, Muffler & Brake, which he had built into 30 retail shops and nine Olympic Distributing warehouses with a total of 325 employees.

Today he is involved in commercial real estate, is restoring or reconstructing four of his AA/GDs as well as his Fuel-Cuda. He is also building an aluminum-bodied 1941 Willys Coupe, is about to introduce aluminum HEMI cylinder heads for small block Chev engines and, he notes with a bit of a grin, “I just may race again”.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Stay tuned… an upcoming issue will include step by step engine building with Walt Austin.

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