Tracy Press

Thirteen-year-old Austin Arnerich of Banta is already a repeat winner on the drag racing circuit.

It’s not unusual to find a 13-year-old’s room filled with drag-racing models, dragster posters, even an alarm clock that sounds like a dragster. But that’s just where Austin Arnerich’s obsession starts.

Austin Arnerich, 13, has won a shelf full of trophies in the half-scale dragster he built with the help of his father, Mike. Photo by Bob Brownne/Tracy Press.

A shelf full of trophies in his room also testifies to his success, and a glass case displays the more prestigious awards, like the runner-up plaque he earned at the seventh annual Hot Rod Gasser Nationals on June 1 at Champion Raceway in Medford, Ore.

His dad, Mike Arnerich, said that’s just the start for the new racing season. Austin plans to run three more events at Medford, and on June 21, he will be in the O’Reilly NHRA Junior Drags at Sacramento Raceway. The latter is the fifth of 17 races he will run in Sacramento this year. It’s is also part of the Team Sacramento Points Series, where Austin holds 11th place among 20 drivers in the 13- to 17-year-old division.

That standing, plus the runner-up finish in Oregon, shows that Austin is ready to score some big wins in his fifth year of racing.

Arnerich started driving at age 9 after years of hanging out at the track with his father and other family members. Photo by Bob Brownne/Tracy Press.

Austin has the confidence of an experienced racer, and he’s not intimidated at all about the move up.

“When I was 11, I beat a 16-year-old for King of the Track,” he said, referring to the head-to-head competition between the NHRA division leaders.

Racing is also in his blood. Mike Arnerich races, and Austin spent enough time as a youngster at the track — where he watched his dad, uncle Tom Arnerich and older cousin Bill Fitting race — that it was only a matter of time before he got his own car.

By the time he was 9 years old, Austin was ready to start driving. And there was no question that he would be a quick study.

“I just learned how (to drive) driving other things,” he said, adding that he still loves to ride dirt bikes for fun. “Then I talked to other people at the track who showed me how to drive.”

The weekends at the track are just the highlight of an effort that includes hours in the shop, where Austin, his dad and his grandfather Carl Rumble built the dragster.

They’ve put a five-horsepower Briggs and Stratton 3¼-inch bore racing engine in the back of the car, and with pure alcohol fuel, they get enough power to go one-eighth of a mile in 7.9 seconds, topping out at about 84 mph. That’s the result last time out. They expect Austin’s results will only improve this summer.

“This year, to run the big numbers, we put an overdrive clutch on the rear,” Mike said.

Like all motorsports, drag racing is an expensive hobby, but they have attracted sponsors and have their own shop where Austin has learned his way around engines, hand-made frames and the machine shop needed to build and repair them all.

Some races, like next weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA Junior Drags, will pay out prizes to the winners. Austin’s winnings go directly into a college fund. He hasn’t decided what his major will be, but he expects that he can apply the skills he’s learning today to his future goals.

“I’d like to get on a team, work on a professional car and work my way up,” he said.

• We want to hear what you have to say. To reach Sports Editor Bob Brownne, call 830-4227 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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