harold%20bull[1].jpg (67.08 KiB) Viewed 20835 times
We have one additional Dragster for the historic tent at Dragstalgia, none other than 90 year old "King" Harold Bull with the famed "Stripduster"
British Drag Racing Hall of Fame Member "King" Harold and his son Simon have been trying to complete a replica of the famed BMC slingshot for quite sometime. The idea being to surprise everyone by bringing the little car back to life at Dragstalgia this year as a display only at this time. (unless things change?)
‘King Harold’ as he is affectionately known at Santa Pod holds the honour of running the very first timed pass down the famous Santa Pod quarter mile at the Easter meeting on 11th April 1966.
Harold Bull and Stripduster hold three world records taken from the previous holder C. Arbarth in his Fiat Arbarth, all at RAF Elvington, Yorkshire. To our knowledge, they have never been broken again, so Harold still holds the three world records for standing quarter mile, standing 500 meters and standing kilometer.
At one meeting, Harold recalls, he was racing at Santa Pod and Bob Phelps asked if he would be interested in a match race with Tony Densham in Commuter, a dragster which was about six times the capacity of my Stripduster and two seconds faster in the quarter mile, so he was to have a two second start!
Bob was offering £100 to the winner which was a lot of money in those days, so he agreed, just for a bit more entertainment for the spectators !!
They both lined up at the Christmas tree and as soon as my green light came on he was gone, but for some reason Harold got much more traction than usual and consequently it picked up the front end into an enormous wheely, switching lanes in the process !!!!!
Being Harold he was NOT going to let up, so as soon as the front wheels were back on the ground, he steered across to his own lane thinking that Commuter would run into the back of him if he didn't, he carried on with his foot to the floor and still got to the finish line first.
After the race he was told that Commuter also switched lanes (she had a habit of doing this) so the race was much more exciting than the bit he saw from Stripduster’s driving seat. Owing to what happened in the race which the spectators loved (swapping lanes means disqualification) Bob Phelps split the winnings and Tony and Harold got £50 each.
http://www.stripduster.co.uk/site/Home.html