: Have you ever tuned a Top Fuel car?
AC: No.
You and John have accomplished a lot over the years. Is there anything else that you personally want to do, besides win another championship?
AC: Yeah, I want to be as rich as John.
Okay. Do you think that's going to happen?
AC: Nope. Not likely.
: So, there's nothing left as far as races, championships….
AC: Well, sure there is, there's always one more. It's like, how many championships are enough? Well, probably a couple more and that's always going to be the answer, I hope. As one gets older and starts thinking that you are so devoted to what you're doing here that you really ought to take some time to go smell some roses and do some things that you've always dreamed of because some day you're going to be too old to do anything.
What's changed is that in my life, as I get older, there are less and less things that I really enjoy, and the one thing that never ceases to make me happy is to kick their (opponents’) ass. So, it's like, how long can you do this? Well, let's see, Ray's (Alley) 75 and he just
took a new job, so compared to that, I've got a long time to go. I remember George Hoover was 92 when he was still actively crew chiefing.
So, Pop Hoover and Ray Alley's longevity gives you hope that you can keep doing this for a long time?
AC: Let's say that I have no real plan of quitting. I might change my system a little bit some day where I do get to do a few things. I really do have a strong desire to take a motorcycle tour of the Alps and you've got to do that in the time of the year that we're still racing, so you have to neglect the racing business for a week or so to go do that, but I may fit that in some time.
As long as you're on the subject, what's your favorite motorcycle brand?
AC: I love my BMW. I have a K1200-S that's had a little hot rod work on it and it's a riot.
: You used to do a little dirt biking. Are you still active in that?
AC: No, I sold my dirt bike about three years ago. I've still got my original Husqevarna that I had a lot of fun on in the '70s and '80s. I kept it as a memento. I had a 620 KTM up until three years ago and it was a lot of fun, but the aches and pains seemed to out weigh the pleasure.
: If you couldn't have John Force as a driver, what other driver out there that's active would you like to have driving your car?
AC: I get along with Robert Hight just fine.
Do you think that any of the rules that NHRA has implemented for nitro cars has accomplished what they were supposed to do?
AC: I think so. Let's say the oil-down penalties have definitely caused teams to focus a lot more on not putting oil on the track, and that has helped the shows and that has been avery necessary part of it all. And the reduction to 90% (nitro), along with that came a very big reduction of really catastrophic explosions. I don't know that the 85% nitro rule did anything except help us learn how to go fast. All the cars are faster now on 85% than 90 or 100 percent. Really though, the spontaneous detonation where you blow a cylinder head off and damage the frame rail, you don't see that anymore, so I'd have to say the little bit of nitro reduction, as far as reducing it to 90% is concerned certainly was a good idea. I don't think much of their new point system, but whatever.
: Why don’t you like the “Chase”?
AC: Because it makes luck a bigger factor than skill. You could win the first 17 races in a row and then do horrible and you wouldn't even be in the final four for the championship.
In the second part of the Innerview Austin Coil talks about rule changes, Tom Compton, Alan Johnson, cheating, tires and a variety of other subjects concerning professional drag racing and his life with John Force.
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