Drag Illustrated Issue 127, November 2017 | Page 82
30 UNDER 30
AUSTIN WILLIAMS
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aised by a mother and father
who both raced, Austin Williams be-
gan his career behind the wheel at
age eight, racing Jr. Dragsters. Once
he moved to the big cars, he started
winning races and titles and has never looked
back. The 2014 NHRA Stock world champion
finished this season with a Super Comp world title
and a Stock victory at the NHRA Finals at Pomo-
na, solidifying his spot on the DI 30 Under 30 list.
“It’s cool,” he says of the honor. “There’s a lot of
young people doing a lot of things in our sport,
whether it’s on the track or in other various parts
of the sport. To be recognized with those people,
it’s a pretty cool thing.”
An engineer by trade, Williams sees his race
machines as a complex math equation. Combining
his love of racing with an affinity for numbers, he
knew as a novice Jr. Dragster racer he had a knack
for turning on win lights. “I learned early on that
racing takes a lot of detail and a lot of numbers, so
the better grasp you have on those numbers, the
better racer you can be,” Williams adds.
The place most tied to Williams and his ability
to win is Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, where
he’s won the NHRA Kansas Nationals in Super
Comp an incredible five years in row. An incred-
ible stretch for anyone, consistently winning at
one of the more difficult tracks to tame has made
Williams a racer to watch regardless of the venue.
“There’s a few things at Topeka, a few intricacies
that I think play well into my hands,” Williams be-
lieves. “The weather’s always a little weird there. I
don’t know, I’m just really comfortable coming out
from beneath the tower; the fans are far away from
you and it gives you that Saturday-night bracket
feel where I started. It’s always just relaxing when
I go there because it’s familiar territory.”
It’s hardly surprising Williams has found suc-
cess in drag racing, given his very first nation-
al-event victory was against living legend Dan
Fletcher. He counts that win at Belle Rose, Louisi-
ana, as one of his most memorable for two reasons.
“One, the Sportsnationals are always huge for
Stock Eliminator, so you always have a big field
of cars and two, the person I ran in the finals was
Dan Fletcher. Anytime you can run somebody like
that in the finals and actually get the win light to
come on is always a really cool feeling.
“All the wins are really cool, but that one prob-
ably still has a little bit of purpose there because
I actually got it done on the big stage for the first
time.” – BRANDON W. MUDD
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ROBERT BAUER III
Bauer, whose other wins include a $10,000
payday at Empire and this year’s Race of Champi-
ons title at Lancaster, spends his weekdays main-
taining his dragster, his father’s supercharged
Pontiac GXP Top Sportsman entry, and the ’65
Nova they share. He’s also pursuing a master’s
degree in business management.
“Working in the shop is like a full-time job,
maintaining the cars and making sure they’re all
in top shape,” Bauer says. “If you miss one thing,
that could mean a first-round loss just because
you made a mistake – you forgot to tighten a bolt
or something.”
Humble, yet clearly driven and passionate
about the sport, Bauer recognizes he couldn’t do
what he does without the support of his parents,
Bob and Michelle Bauer, as well as a long list of
sponsors: K100 Fuel Treatment, Mickey Thomp-
son Tires, VP Racing Fuels, LAT Racing Oils, FTI
Converters, Lucas Oil, Racing RVs, R&R Trans-
missions, Chrome-Worx Performance, American
Race Cars, Motorsports Unlimited, Jan-Cen Rac-
ing Engines, Precision Racing Suspension, and
RedHorse Performance. – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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82 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 127
E
lma, New York’s Robert Bauer
III didn’t step foot in the seat of a Jr.
Dragster until he was 14 years old,
well past the average starting age for
most Jr. Dragster racers. A late start
didn’t set Bauer back at all, though, as he went on
to win Lancaster Dragway track championships
in his second and fourth years in the class. Better
yet, he carried over his success to big cars as a
driver and head mechanic for the fleet of race
cars he shares with his father.
Just two races into his 2017 season, Bauer en-
joyed a “dream weekend” at an NHRA divisional
open at Toronto Motorsports Park. All told, the
Bauer family walked away with four Wallys.
“I entered three classes with the dragster and
my dad entered Super Street with the Nova,”
Bauer says. “I won three Wallys that weekend
– two in Super Comp, one in Super Pro, then
I runnered-up in the Quick 32 race. I turned it
a couple thou red. My dad won Super Street in
his ’65 Nova. That was the biggest weekend for
me because I got a win and my dad got a win – I
couldn’t believe it.”