He’s simply the winningest Top Fuel Funny Car crew chief of all time. Coil directed inductee John Force to 15 NHRA Funny Car titles — 10 of them in a row — and 17 overall when you include two he won back-to-back captaining Frank Hawley and the Chi-Town Hustler (1982-83). Coil, engineering mentor John Farkonas and driver Pat Minick made The Hustler one of the dominant match racing machines of the late ‘60s and 1970s. When sponsorship dried up in the mid-‘80s, Coil joined Force for one of the most successful driver/crew chief pairings ever. Few remember now, but at the time Force was struggling. In addition to 15 titles, they won 130+ tour victories. An emotional Force said when Coil received a 2019 NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award, “You summed it up best, Snake,” referring to inductee Prudhomme. “You always said I wasn’t shit without Austin Coil.” Coil was named Car Craft Magazine Funny Car Crew Chief of the Year 12 times and inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1997.
By Jon Asher
When we consider winning records, we’re invariably discussing marks compiled by drivers. Drag racing’s most well-known winner is Funny Car legend John Force, with 16 NHRA titles on his resume. Now consider that the man who guided him to 15 of those championships — 10 consecutively — is this year’s Drag Racing inductee, master-tuner Austin Coil. And don’t forget the two titles Coil earned by leading Frank Hawley to championships behind the wheel of the Chi-Town Hustler F/C.
Coil was one of the original triumvirate of John Farkonas, Coil and driver Pat Minick, who fielded a series of Hustlers beginning in the mid-‘60s. All were inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2014, but sadly, Coil is the only remaining member of the trio.
Through the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s, F/C match racing was where the action — and money — was. There was a lot more money to be made at tracks both big and small, so that’s where the Hustler ran. It was easily one of the top three draws.
When track operators hired-in a car, they rarely talked about performances. It was all about the show, and with Coil’s increasingly comprehensive understanding of every single element of the car, the Hustler’s performances quickly caught up to and began surpassing its showmanship reputation. Coil, if he chose to do so, could mount an effective argument that his car was the first to break the six second barrier, but he’s unlikely to because he’s just not that guy.
Before it happened, if you’d suggested that the pairing of Coil and Force would result in record-setting the likes of which had never been seen before, you’d’ve been laughed out of the room. Force’s nonstop personality mated to Coil’s why-use-four-words-when-three-would-suffice persona simply wouldn’t work – but it did. Simplistically, Force got out of the way and let Coil do his thing. Conversely, as far as we know, Coil never commented about Force’s actions behind the wheel. It was the proverbial match made in heaven.
Shortly after they began working together, visitors to Force’s transporter noticed a ring of television screens surrounding Coil’s position front and center to his massive computer. He had cameras set up around the pits, not to spy on his charges but to help them. He knew his young workers were long on enthusiasm but short on experience. He also understood that he couldn’t be making tuning decisions while also doing the hands-on work. Did the cameras discover mechanical errors? Once in a while they did, but Coil never berated the guilty party. He merely demonstrated the correct way of doing things, and his mechanic got back to work without having been humiliated.
Football talking heads love to spout about coaching “trees” — the way one coach’s teachings have influenced those who followed him. John Force Racing is a somewhat rare example of this happening in drag racing. When someone departs, the plan of succession generally has been to promote from within. The bottom line is that the majority of the winning tuners currently working at JFR learned or honed their skills under the direction of Austin Coil — the most prolific winner in drag racing history.
Asher is the former editor of five drag racing-related magazines. In 55 years of writing and photographing, he’s received two Special Recognition Awards from the All-Star Drag Racing Team, the Founders Award from the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame and AARWBA’s Straight Shooter Award.
NHRA Announcer Alan Reinhart (R) and MSHFA 2008 Inductee John Force.
(Brian Cleary/bcpix.com)