Obstacles Too Much For Austin

POMONA, Calif. - Considering what has happened to Pat Austin lately, it's probably not surprising that the Tacoma drag racer failed to make the 16-car field for today's top-fuel eliminations at the NHRA Winternationals.

Anything better would have been a motor-racing miracle for Austin, who still is hurting from an accident 13 days ago and is driving an unfamiliar car for a team that lost its crew just last Thursday.

Austin's fate for the season-opener on the NHRA's Winston Series schedule was sealed on his final qualifying run at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds yesterday when he completed a quarter mile in "only" 5.09 seconds. To make what became the quickest 16-car lineup ever, he had to beat Shelley Anderson's :05.01.

The setback merely is the latest in a string that began Jan. 25 in Phoenix, where Austin, 28, was intending to go only 200 or 300 feet on a test run in a new car and instead plowed into a concrete wall at an estimated 200 mph when the throttle stuck.

"I got knocked out. My tailbone and leg still hurt," said Austin, who was treated and released.

The car, however, was history.

Intent on satisfying sponsors by making the visible opener here, a new car was purchased by Walt Austin Racing from Al Swindahl in Tacoma. It was a car Swindahl reportedly built for baseball player Jack Clark, whose career as a race-car owner was put on hold after he declared bankruptcy.

The car was readied and brought here last Tuesday night.

Then, on Thursday, crew chief Tim Richards and four members of the crew - Dana Kimmel of Puyallup, Richard Venebles of Tacoma, Darren Capps of Spanaway and Kim LaHaie (whose father, Dick LaHaie, is a former NHRA top-fuel champion) - walked out.

Why? Richards, hired by handshake last October, cited "conflicting interests between the crew and the Walt Austin family." There was no written contract.

Things Pat Austin said yesterday seemed to support Richards' "conflicting interests" statement.

"This is a family team," Austin said. "The family means everything. You have to show respect for the whole family. That's how it is and that's how it's going to be."

The WAR family's racing stable includes an alcohol-powered funny car, in which Austin has won 47 races and four NHRA season titles in seven years. Richards reportedly told Walt Austin that he didn't want the alcohol funny car in the same pit with the top-fuel dragster.

Walking out on the first day of a race is considered bad form, said WAR spokesman Tim Pavolka.

"Crews quit on Mondays, after a race, not on Thursdays," Pavolka said. It has been speculated that Richards and the others walked out because they have another opportunity, possibly on a car owned by Clark, who reportedly is ready to return to drag racing with driver John Andretti.