Harold Bull
“King” Harold Bull was first introduced to Drag Racing at the 1964 International Drag Festivals and returned home full of ideas to build a scaled down version of the American Dragsters he had seen using British components.
Easter 1965 saw Harold’s ideas take shape as he begun construction of a slingshot dragster called “Stripduster” using an 803cc Austin A30 engine, Morris 8 gearbox and rear axle, Austin 7 front axle and an 84 inch mild steel frame with beautifully shaped aluminium rear bodywork. 5 months saw it finished and he took it along to Gravely practice day in August then entered the 2nd International Drag Festival and wound up runner up in the “up to 2500cc” Dragster Eliminator at Woodvale running mid 16’s at 80m.p.h.
1966 saw the opening of Santa Pod Raceway and Harold arrived early at the first meet on Easter Monday to lay down the first run by a dragster on the virgin strip despite the fact it was raining hard. At the “Big Go” in May Harold was experimenting with Nitro Fuel for the first time resulting in wheelstands in all gears on the dry strip but he took the “up to 1000cc” Dragster Eliminator win. He was now using a larger 950cc A35 motor and in June fitted home-made injection. An extra 20 inches added to the frame and a dropped tube front axle helped stability and Harold got down to a 12.99 ET in July. 1966 ended with a successful crack at the Class C standing quarter record at Elvington where “Stripduster” smashed it in 12.855 seconds.
Harold added a supercharger to “Stripduster” in 1967 and at the Drag Racing Championships he ran an incredible 10.89/121m.p.h. He also teamed up with Derek Metcalf to form B & M Equipment producing anything from small brackets …
Geof Hauser
Geof Hauser first discovered Drag Racing in the pages of Hot Rod Magazine in 1967 when helping out in a newsagent as a young teenager. Then a year later when on a family holiday in Canada he hitch-hiked 100 miles to his first Drag Race meeting and became hooked. He got to know some of the Drag Racers in his local area including Brian Gibson who ran the “Wild Thing” Ford Pop, and Alan Wigmore with “Itzaviva” who gave him lifts to Santa Pod. Geof was soon helping out some of the racers and at the same time learning how these weird and wonderful cars were put together. He also got to drive the Chevy powered Capri Pro Stocker “Music Machine” that year, and wrote articles for National Drag Racer magazine.
In 1972 he went with the National Drag Racing Club to the States to witness for the first time top American Drag Racing and the following year joined Top Fuel racer Clive Skilton’s team as he was already a long-standing friend of Clive’s mechanic Phil Cornish.
Geof continued working full-time for Clive Skilton looking after his Revolution AA/Fuellers and Vauxhall VX4/90 Funny Car as well as various engines for other T/F racers until 1975 when he joined Liam Churchill running the “Euro Sting” Capri Funny Car, and drove it at the NDRC Wroughton meeting when Liam was laid up with illness.
Early in 1977 Geof got a call from the States. It was Clive Skilton asking him to go over and work for him again. Geof didn’t take long to make up his mind and was soon on a plane to sunny California and worked the full-time race circuit for two months racing every weekend picking up valuable experience along the way.
Geof married Sylvia Read in March 1978. Sylvia had been running …
Al O’Connor
The name Al O’Connor first appeared in a drag racing publication when he put an ad in Drag Racing & Hot Rod Magazine in 1966 asking for a four barrel Carter carb for a Buick V8. He would have been a teenager back then and was already modifying cars. Al got a ’59 Dodge which he gave a flame paint job and fitted a 354 Hemi, but he couldn’t wait to get to Santa Pod and ended up loosing his licence for six months after getting busted for street racing. After that Al decided to do all his racing at the Drags and got himself a ’58 Ford Zephyr. He kept the straight six and added triple carbs, fitted a 4-speed box and gave it a flame paint job and the name “Rocky II” (Rocky I was his son). Al ran it in D/Modified during 1970 clocking mid 15s. The following year Al gave “Rocky II” a roof chop and fitted black perspex windows then in 1972 the straight six went in Al’s tow-car and a 383 Chrysler was slotted into “Rocky II” along with a straight tube front axle and Jag rear. It was now a Street Altered and the times came down to low 13s.
At the end of 1973 the Gleadow bros’ Chevy powered Ford Pop “Motor Psycho” came up for sale. Al snapped it up and spent the winter turning it into “Al’s Gasser” which he debuted at Santa Pod’s Easter Springnationals in 1974. It was an instant crowd favourite with gleaming black paint, sign writing on the doors and of course flames on the front. At the Gasser’s second meeting Al took the win in Super Street beating Dave Lee Travis in “Tender Trap” and by the end of the year had run an 11.45/119m.p.h. and …
Peter & Erica Bartlett
Peter Bartlett’s part in British Drag Racing History goes back to the very beginings when he was a member of the “Highwaymen Hot Rod Club” along with Allan Herridge and joined the British Hot Rod Association when it was formed in 1960. At the BHRA’s first get together in 1962 he turned up in his customised ’47 Plymouth coupe complete with pin stripped dash and record player. The BHRA formed it’s first Committee at the end of 1962 which included Peter Bartlett as Treasurer.
1963 saw Peter helping out Allan Herridge and his Buick Dragster at sprint meetings and he enter his TR2 at the Church Lawford Quarter Mile Drag Sprint and ran several 19 second ETs. The following year he got himself every hot rodders dream machine a ’57 Chevy and entered it at the first British Drag Race on 17th May 1964 the BHRA Big Go at Duxford but he still couldn’t run quicker than 19 seconds. Later that year he mounted a huge piece of wood on the front of his Chevy as it was used to push start the American Dragsters at the International Drag Festivals and it was christened the “Shovin’ Chevy”. Peter soon learnt to wind up the windows and close the air vents after nearly passing out on Nitro fumes when the first AA/Fuel Dragster fired up in front of him. Once the Dragsters had left the line he had to carefully pick his way through the dense white tyre smoke using the two lines of rubber to guide him up the strip and then push them back to the pits.
Peter’s wizardry with electric circuits was put to good use when he designed and built the timing equipment and scaled-down christmas tree for the BHRA Model Section’s extremely popular Slot Car Drags …
Krister Johansson
At the Santa Pod Internationals in 1972 an unknown Swede entered his straight six powered ’62 Dodge Lancer in Senior Street Eliminator and went home with the trophy after beating Bob Oram’s E-Type Jag in the final. His name was Krister Johansson and he would soon become a familiar name at British International Drag Races and feared by his UK competitors.
A huge group of Swedish racers decended on Santa Pod in October 1976 for the Winternationals including Krister Johansson and his rear engined, straight six Dodge powered Senior Dragster and he wound up in the final again but this time got shutdown by fellow Swede Anders Hojner in his Chevy rail.
1977 and Krister was back this time running in Pro Comp with the “Hall and Addy” Injected Nitro Dragster at the Santa Pod September Internationals. He qualified #2 but never got to race as the meeting was rained off and had to wait for the 1978 Springnationals where he qualified #1 and got to the final only to be beaten by Tony Donges. Later in the year at the September Internationals Krister was #1 qualifyer again with a new Pro Comp low ET at 7.17/191m.p.h. then lowered it again in round 1 with a 7.08 but got out of shape in the semis handing the win to Martin Hopp.
1979 saw Krister take the European Pro Comp Championship and he also ran Europe’s first 6 sec Pro Comp pass at Mantorp Park in May.
Krister just missed getting the Tor Line Pro Comp Championship in 1981 after reaching the final at the September World Finals he needed a win to take the title but red lit his chances away handing the championship to Tony Donges by one point.
Krister was back at Santa Pod in 1982 with a …