High above Seattle in the iconic Space Needle sat NHRA Top Fuel stars Larry Dixon and Darrell Russell, engaged in a cheerfully animated conversation full of suggestions for attracting younger drivers and fans. That was in 2003, and little has changed, except that Russell perished the following June in a mechanical-failure accident and three-time champion Dixon is sidelined because of a scarcity of sponsorship dollars.

Thirteen years later, the Top Fuel class still has few young stars. Leah Pritchett, at 28, is the youngest regular on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour. And she has been operating race to race since her team owner abruptly resigned in April, so her future remains uncertain. Former points leader and two-time 2016 winner Brittany Force is 30, and a handful of rivals (Shawn Langdon, Steve Torrence, Morgan Lucas, JR Todd, and Richie Crampton) are in their mid- to upper-30s. Terry McMillen, 61, is the elder statesman among fulltime Top Fuel racers (although some entry lists include greybeards Chris Karamesines, Luigi Novelli, Steve Chrisman, Steve Faria, and Mike Strasburg).

Poised in the wings, about 5,000 miles away, a 21-year-old man is ready to bring fresh excitement to a Top Fuel class that has attracted just 15 cars at two of the season’s first eight races, barely 16 at five others, and a surplus at 17 entrants only at Atlanta.

He’s humble and even a bit shy . . . until he mashes the throttle of a 10,000-horsepower dragster. And he isn’t saying he will swoop in and save the class.

But he could, Noah Stutz, this young man from Hersberg, Switzerland.

Auto racing was banned for years in his country following the 1955 fatality-marred 24 Hours of Le Mans. (The death toll was 84 spectators and Mercedes-Benz driver Pierre Levegh, with about 120 more injured.) But Stutz already was defying the norm at eight years old, possibly a prerequisite for participating in drag racing. That’s when he accompanied his father, hill-climb and circle-track racer Reto Stutz, to Hockenheim, Germany, for the NitrOlympiX and fell in love with the sport.

Dad told Noah he had to come up 1,000 Swiss francs before he would get him a Jr. Dragster. So the new drag-racing convert saved his allowance money, earned a few extra cents and francs by doing odd jobs to help out around the house – “maybe I clean his car or something like that, cutting the grass, just some little works like that,” he said.

“After school everyone was buying some candy and stuff. And I wasn’t buying some candy. I put all the money in a wood box I had at home,” Stutz said. “It wasn’t like 1,000 Swiss francs, but it was a little amount I could get myself to show Dad that I really want this. After four years, we started getting things together, and it started getting more real.”

The father-son duo built a Jr. Dragster, and FIA Top Fuel star Urs Erbacher added Stutz to his team to complement his dragster and a motorcycle. That was a major coup, for Erbacher is a three-time FIA European Top Fuel champion and three-time FIA Top Methanol Funny Car champion. He owns Fat Attack Custom Bikes and has starred in his own reality TV show, “Kings of Nitro.” So he’s a celebrity not just in Western Europe but also in the Middle East and Africa, thanks to the Discovery Channel’s 124-nation distribution of his program.

 “That was perfect. I could travel with Urs over Europe,” Stutz said.

Stutz, who said, “Swiss German is my mother language” but is fluent also in formal German and French, taught himself English so he could follow NHRA drag racing. He had paid rapt attention to Erbacher’s tales of John Force’s exploits and Alan Johnson’s achievements: “He told me most of it, what’s happened over here, who was ‘the man,’ who was the hero at the moment. He’s a big Alan Johnson and John Force supporter.” But Stutz wanted to soak up as much information as he could, so he studied English diligently on his own to keep up with the news from the U.S. without a translator.

That’s how much Noah Stutz wants to compete with and against not just Europe’s best drag racers but the world’s best.

So maybe he’s the vitamin the NHRA Top Fuel class needs for some new vigor. Maybe this is a perfect time for Stutz to step to the forefront.

“That’s what we think, too. If the time comes, it’s now. That’s for sure,” Stutz said in a recent visit to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The environment is perfect for Stutz to come onto the NHRA scene and capture the hearts of drag-racing fans, much in the way Mario Andretti did in open-wheel racing in 1965. Andretti’s storybook background – his journey from war-weary Yugoslavia (from a section now part of Croatia) through a refugee camp in Lucca, Italy, to Nazareth, Pa., then sneaking out of the house with twin brother Aldo to race at the local dirt track – fascinated the crowd at Indianapolis as much as Andretti’s smile, his endearing accent, and his ability to drive a race car with speed and style.

One thing might be different.

Andretti said when he felt he was ready to race with America’s elite, he had “a ton of ambition and a resume that would have fit in my watch pocket. I also was gaining a reputation as a driver who sometimes tried to go faster than the car.” He said when he met the sport’s decision-makers, the initial response was “underwhelming. It was like I didn’t exist.” When he finally got the nod from premier (and finicky) chief mechanic Clint Brawner to drive for his Dean Van Lines team, Andretti was 24 years old and – in his words – “so new I hadn’t been unwrapped yet.”

Stutz has “been unwrapped.” He has attended NHRA races at Pomona, Reading, and St. Louis but has raced here in the U.S. twice, both times at the fall Las Vegas event. In his 2014 debut, at age 19, he began qualifying in the 11th place but slipped to 16th through three sessions and missed the cut at No. 19, .041 of a second off T.J. Zizzo’s bump spot. He came back the following Halloween weekend and started in the tentative seventh position, moved down to 10th then 12th, and finally secured a berth in the field at No. 14. In the first round of eliminations, he lost to No. 3 qualifier Billy Torrence.

“We said, ‘Let’s do Vegas 2014!’ We gave it a try and it worked out so perfect. It was a really nice experience for me,” Stutz said of his stint in the Lagana family dragster. “I talked to Dad: ‘I want to do it one more time with these guys.’ So I talked with Formex – that’s my watch company that supports me – and we decided to come one more time here, and we managed to qualify in the field – which was like a win for me.

“It was such an amazing feeling to go on Sunday, to feel the crowd going crazy. That’s what I love about the sport itself: being near to the fans. It’s really amazing so see how these people all get excited,” he said. “Everyone welcomed me with open arms. Nobody was like, ‘Who’s this guy?!’ So everyone came and wished me luck, all the other drivers. I feel really welcome here. I have some good people behind me all the way. When I first came to the States, the Laganas and people from AJR [Alan Johnson Racing] helped me to get to know people. They always let me spend time at their catering and I met so many people there. I just feel really welcome everywhere.”

It’s not stretch to say that with his charming and magnetic personality, he could do for the NHRA what Andretti did for championship car racing.

“That would be a dream, you know what I mean? That would be so super-awesome,” Stutz said. “If it worked like that, I would be the happiest person alive, I think.”

He has the skills to do it. He’s humble. He isn’t boastful. He’s not a “Look-at-me! Look at me!” kind of young man. He has an even-keel personality. He has a fun breeziness about him. He certainly looks like the perfect sidekick for Erbacher, a fellow he happily calls “the rocker guy” because his rugged stature, longer locks, and sleeves of tattoos.

In his earlier photos, Stutz has that serious, laser-sharp gaze and full, almost-pouty lips and tousled hair that makes him a curious and purposeful cross between Justin Bieber and a young Donald Trump with a dash of Louis Vuitton model.

“Many guys say I look like a ‘70s race-car driver,” Stutz said, laughing that girls “are sometimes crazy with my long hair.”

The only thing that might make him even cooler is if he strolled around the pits in a firesuit, casually toying with a pair of drumsticks saved back from his teenage Tommy Lee days.

But “cool” will come. What makes Stutz cool right now for hardcore drag-racing fans is the fact he bypassed the alcohol ranks. He jumped from Super Comp competition (in which, incidentally, he won at the 2011 and 2012 NitrOlympX) straight into Top Fuel.  

“I skipped the alcohol category. Actually, our plan was to go Pro Mod after Super Comp. But Urs came to me and said, ‘Noah, it’s time to drive a real car now,’ ” Stutz said. It’s good it worked out so perfectly – so far. I really hope it continues like that. I’m really thankful. It could have been in the other direction.”

As for the Pro Modifieds, he said, “I would like to have a go once in it, but my heart is in nitro. I love to see the Pro Mods. They look like cars. I love to watch them, but I need to smell some nitro in my car.”

Helping this young man launch a fulltime U.S. career is a no-brainer. Formex and Midland Swiss Quality Oil have given him a financial push. Erbacher and Bobby and Dom Lagana have showed him the ropes. His father has stood behind him – and still bears the scars, literally, from working as the clutch man for two seasons throughout Europe.

It will be intriguing to see who will be the smart one to “discover” the Top Fuel class’ newest sensation.