Folks Of Interest Buster Couch

NHRA's chief starter for 30 plus years as well as division 2 director for something like 20 years. I sure there are plenty of stories about his experiences, anybody have some to share?

 

MAN. Someone should write a book about Buster. He was a legend.

 

I can just imagine some of what he has seen and had to deal with.

 

Remember seeing him in Hot Rod mag back when. One picture I always remember is Buster with one arm wrapped over the top of his head to cover both ears and the other arm holding a rag over his mouth for the nitro fumes and the Christmas tree switch in his hand, just when top fuel dragsters took off! Reminded me of my flight deck days in the safety zone when an F-4 took off. Quite a rumble!

 

He was the man! If he liked you he would cut you some slack, but beware if he didn't! Many many Buster stories, however one sticks out: we were down to one pass @ Gainsville and when I backed up from the burnout the chutes weren't hooked to the rear end...they were just dragging! Buster got in front of me and held up his hand I thought Oh Fuxx what now. Well 10 or 15 seconds later he motioned me forward. My partner had climbed over the wheelie bars and under the FC to put the pin in the chutes! WOW As before Buster was the man...

 

Buster was the Man. More than once I have seen him straddle a running T/F after he told the driver to shut off and the driver thought he knew better. Buster always made his point, even after he retired from being Chief Starter he ran race control and yes he ran it the same way he ran the starting line. But he always had the racers safety in mind. I watched him chew up and spit out more than one TV producer who tried to tell him how to speed up track clean up.

 

Don't really have any Racing type stories about Buster, but I do have a story about when I met him. It was 1993 at the NHRA Springnationals in Columbus. It was after the first Pro qualifying session on Saturday, and it was hotter than Hell. I was standing by the fence near the starting line and Buster was headed up to the tower for some AC. I called to him and he waived, then stopped and came back down the stairs. He came over to my Mom, Dad, & I and posed for a picture and signed my autograph book. He couldn't have been nicer. I really miss him, quite a guy.