Member Inducted 2010
Geof Hauser
History
Geof Hauser first discovered Drag Racing in the pages of Hot Rod
Magazine in 1967 when helping out in a newsagent as a young
teenager. Then a year later when on a family holiday in Canada
he hitch-hiked 100 miles to his first Drag Race meeting
and became hooked. He got to know some of the Drag Racers in his
local area including Brian Gibson who ran the "Wild Thing"
Ford Pop, and Alan Wigmore with "Itzaviva" who gave him lifts
to Santa Pod. Geof was soon helping out some of the racers and at
the same time learning how these weird and wonderful cars were put
together. He also got to drive the Chevy powered Capri Pro Stocker
"Music Machine" that year, and wrote articles for National Drag
Racer magazine.
In 1972 he went with the National Drag Racing Club to the
States to witness for the first time top American Drag Racing and
the following year joined Top Fuel racer Clive Skilton's team as he
was already a long-standing friend of Clive's mechanic Phil
Cornish.
Geof continued working full-time for Clive Skilton looking after
his Revolution AA/Fuellers and Vauxhall VX4/90 Funny Car as well as
various engines for other T/F racers until 1975 when he joined Liam
Churchill running the "Euro Sting" Capri Funny Car, and drove it at
the NDRC Wroughton meeting when Liam was laid up with illness.
Early in 1977 Geof got a call from the States. It was
Clive Skilton asking him to go over and work for him again. Geof
didn't take long to make up his mind and was soon on a plane to
sunny California and worked the full-time race circuit for two
months racing every weekend picking up valuable experience along
the way.
Geof married Sylvia Read in March 1978. Sylvia had been
running a Production Dodge Challenger and between them they put it
back on the strip in 1978 with Sylvia driving and Geof spinning the
spanners. That year they not only took the RAC National
Championship but also the NDRC and BDR&HRA Championships and
the NDRC Production Championship.
1979 saw more wins and another RAC Championship, the NDRC
Overall Points Championship and Production Championship, the
BDR&HRA Street and Modified Championship and Geof picked up the
Dennis Priddle Mechanics Trophy.
In 1980 they imported the Paul Rossi NHRA record holding
Dodge Challenger Super Stock and debuted it at Santa Pods August
Supernationals with Sylvia once again behind the wheel. It was an
instant crowd favorite with it's wheels up launches and took the
Top Modified win first time out going on to take many more wins in
Top Modified and Super Gas while Geof took over the driving of the
Production Challenger.
Geof founded "Hauser Race Cars" in 1983 and built a new
car for the 1985 season, a state of the art Ford Sierra Super
Gasser. Sylvia won the Super Gas Championship that
year and Geof picked up the Best Prepared Car trophy.
The Sierra was badly damaged in a top end crash at
the 1986 Summernationals. Sylvia emerged from the wreckage
unscathed - a tribute to the car's construction and she still had
enough points to take the Super Gas Championship once again.
1987 and the August Supernationals saw the debut of
another new car from Hauser Race Cars, again a Super Gas
Sierra now with Geof driving. A month later at the World
Finals Geof went on to take Super Gas Eliminator.
Geof moved up to Pro Modified in 1988 with a 500 cubic
inch Mopar on board and became the first British non-nitrous
doorslammer into the eights. Then the following year at the
Supernationals his non-nitrous homebuilt Sierra produced a
fantastic 7.84/184m.p.h. to become first car into the sevens and
went on to win the Pro Modified Championship. Geof was
presented with the Allan Herridge Trophy for Drag Racer of the
Year.
1990 stated off well with a Pro Mod win at the Easter
Internationals but one week later at Avon Park Geof lost control at
the top end on the slippery track, destroying the Sierra but the
rollcage and mainframe held together perfectly and did its job of
protecting Geof . This was the last drive for Geof who went on
to focus all his efforts on his ever expanding Hauser Race Cars,
with orders coming in from far and wide, it currently
boasts the largest drag racing preparation facility in Europe.
In 1997 Geof was heavily involved in
introducing the Junior Dragster class to the UK and has built
the majority of cars currently competing. His two sons Jay and
Scott are both National Championship winners, keeping the family
tradition alive.