(Photo Credit: Brook Hasch) – Bad news out of Missouri today as the workshop of famed drag racer “200mph” Bill Kuhlmann was reduced to rubble after a massive explosion leveled the structure on Sunday night. Fire officials are still trying to determine what caused the blast, which had people calling authorities for miles because of the noise and intensity it produced. News Channel KHQA 7 reported on the destruction and claimed that several old race cars were in the building at the time of the explosion, including the famous Camaro that Kuhlmann drove to break the 200mph barrier for door slammer drag machines in 1987.

Apparently Kuhlmann lives just up the road from the building and heard the calamity first hand. He was quoted in the story as saying, “I was at the house and heard the loudest explosion I ever heard before, because we get sonic booms all the time around here. I stepped outside to see if I could see an airplane in the sky and when I looked to my left, an eighth mile from the house, the whole area was orange with flames a hundred feet high,” Kuhlmann said. “I told Vicki, my wife to call 911. The shop has exploded.”

We are glad to hear that Bill is OK, but like him we’re saddened to learn the fate of the cars that resided in the building, especially the Camaro that stands as one of the most historically significant door slammers in drag racing history.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE KHQA NEWS STORY ON THE EXPLOSION AT BILL KUHLMANN’S SHOP