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.
