When is an A/Fuel injected-nitro dragster a motorized freak? Actually, all the time, but especially when the guy driving it is sitting closer to the front wheels than the rear wheels. We got to see this freak firsthand while on site at NHRA’s 2009 Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals in Pomona. You can imagine our surprise when, as we walked through the staging lanes, we came face to face with Bill Dunlap who was sitting right behind the front wheels of this truly bizarre A/Fueler. After a quick-double take that made me wonder if this dragster started out as a jet car, I realized it was in fact purpose built.
We couldn’t find Bill to ask him about his unconventional dragster built by California builder Robert Sterling, but can imagine there are many of you out there who will come up with your own positive and negative engineering opinions.
As a quick aside, Bill Dunlap has been driving Fuel dragsters since the ‘60s. He’s won the March Meet and for a time drove Larry Huff’s Soapy Sales machine during its heyday in the ‘70s. Among his other accomplishments, Dunlap was one of the first eight men to wheel a front-engine Fuel dragster into the 5-second zone.
We did watch Bill make one qualifying pass, where he seemed to have some trouble with staging, and only ran a 7.32 at 159 mph. According to the track announcer this was the quickest pass to date in the car. In Bill’s defense, the car lurched out of the beams and started the timers and he did shut it off early so I’m sure the car is quicker than low 7’s. Either way, we appreciate the creative ingenuity in designing such an unusual dragster, and there is something about it we just think is cool. This type of creativity made drag racing what it is today, but is seldom seen on tracks anymore, which is why we’ve dubbed Bill Dunlap’s A/Fueler our Motorized Freak of the Week.
