“Wild Bill” Alexander who had one of the more interesting driving careers in drag racing history has died. Alexander was a noted 1960s top fuel driver who departed the sport as an active competitor before the rear engine dragster took over in the top fuel ranks. He then re-emerged in the 1990s as one of the most fearsome drivers in “modern” nostalgia front engine dragsters. He basically worked a split shift that had a 30-year break in the middle! Alexander drove dragsters like the Ernie’s Shutterbug Special which was a wild piece that had the shortest wheelbase of virtually any fuel car when it was running in 1964. The short wheelbase and drastically rearward positioning of the engine put virtually all of the car’s weight on the rear wheels. Alexander wheeled it to impressive performances in 1964, becoming one of the first guys to go over 200 on the west coast, running 202 in that car during a 1964 campaign that also saw him record the second quickest elapsed time in history to that point with a 7.50 second run. A couple years earlier, Alexander beat the Greer-Black-Prudhomme during the summer of ’62 and become one of the very few people on Earth to say that they had accomplished that feat.

Through the 1960s Alexander wheeled nearly a dozen nitro burning dragsters. His exploits of explosions, sideways runs, crashes, and other debauchery are the stuff of legend. He was seldom seen without his signature wide brimmed black hat on and when guys were lined up against Alexander they knew the guy in the other lane was not going to stop driving until the car was upside down, on fire, or the engine had come out of the frame rails….or as happened to him on some laps, all three of those things at the same time. Alexander also runner-upped to Proudhomme at the 1965 Winternationals, which was televised on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Alexander and the sport of drag racing gained big time from that type of national exposure.

The most interesting part of Alexander’s story to us is his return in the 1990s out of retirement to drive the new breed of front engine slingshots that were forging the world of nostalgia drag racing that is booming today. Alexander became the fifth man to join the Nitronic Research 5-Second club in 2000 when he drove the Ground Zero dragster to a 5.99 elapsed time at LVMS during a race. How difficult an accomplishment was that? For perspective’s sake, the first 5-second blast was made by Paul Romine in 1996 and the club was closed with Denver Schutz’s 5.85 blast in 2003. Making a 5-second run was big time stuff for several years in a slingshot and it was a good testament to Alexander’s skills behind the wheels and the whole Ground Zero team’s operation.

Bill’s son Rod, also a talented racer on both the water and asphalt, died of a stroke back in 2011, so we’re sure the two of them have found their pit space at the big strip in the sky and are mixing it up with the likes of the other legends that have passed both recently and in years passed. Alexander was one of the great personalities and characters of the top fuel ranks both when he was mixing it up in the 1960s and during his return some 30 years after. The man never lost his touch with a race car, his flair for the dramatic, or his ability to bring a crowd to their feet with a bad ass run.

Goodbye “Wild Bill” you will be missed.