Austin got off to a .009 start on his 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa and then went down the drag strip at 5.795 seconds at 117.52 mph on a 5.77 dial-in to beat William Keele Jr. from Edinburg Motorsports Park in the final round.

He had beaten Jeramy Tally from Penwell Knights Raceway in the quarterfinals and then earned a bye for the semifinals with his winning package. It meant a lot for Austin, a Texas native now living in Franklin, Ky., to beat the pair of Texas racers and other champions across North America to accomplish his ultimate goal.

“To be these cats, that means the world,” Austin said. “It’s the satisfaction of knowing you could do it. It’s such hard racing all day.”

Austin, 44, has quite an affinity for Holly Springs Motorsports Park. Three weeks before the World Finals, Austin was in an all-Music City final at the IHRA Division 2 (Heat Wave) Summit Team Finals where he beat Brandon Frame on a holeshot in the final round. 

“This place has been good to me and IHRA has been good to me,” Austin said. “We love racing here. Carlton’s Performance, I wouldn’t be here without them. They make it all happen.”

Austin has been racing motorcycles the last eight years, but added he has been around drag racing his whole life. For his winning efforts, Austin received a $3,000 big check from Summit Racing Equipment, an IHRA Gold Card, a World Champion Diamond ring and a prestigious IHRA World Champion Ironman Trophy. Evil SwingArms provided a $575 value towards the purchase of a swingarm.

More than just the competition, Austin enjoyed his whole weekend at the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals presented by Strange Engineering.

“I love IHRA. It’s amazing how they treat you like family,” Austin said. “Everybody I met here was nice, the racers from Nebraska, Texas, all over. It was such a great atmosphere and a great race.”