Member Inducted 2010
Harold Bull
History
"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 to complete dragsters. Many
machines appeared over the next few years with B & M frames and
not just small engined machines as Clive Skilton used one for his
2nd Revolution AA/Fuel Dragster.
1968 saw a new slimmer and lighter frame on "Stripduster" and
the gearbox had been cast aside as Harold had gone the direct drive
route, he'd also fitted a 2 inch flange to the outer rim of one of
the front spoked wheels to help trip the beams, the first seen in
the UK and soon copied by other racers. It took a while to get the
direct drive working properly but by the end of the year Harold was
flying with a 10.14/133m.p.h.
Santa Pod's Season Opener for 1969 saw Harold take on Tony
Densham in the 7 litre "Commuter" AA/Fuel Dragster. "Stripduster"
was given a 2 sec handicap start and blasted out the hole heading
towards the centre line and from then on in was "hearts in the
mouth" action as "Commuter" dropped the clutch to give chase and
Tony also veered towards the centre line and the crowd held their
breath as the cars became one. Harold tripped the finish beams
first with a 10.68/127m.p.h. as Tony followed him with a
9.26/152m.p.h. without a doubt a heart stopping race with the
thoroughly British crowd cheering the little man on to a
magnificent win. Harold took "Stripduster" over to Sweden in 1969
as part of a team of British cars and bikes and the Swedes were
just as blown away with Harold's Mini engined machine as they were
the bigger dragsters and he came away with an order for a
frame.
Into the 70s and Harold continued his winning ways and at the
1971 Season Opener ran a fantastic 9.75 secs and upped the speed to
136m.p.h.
In 1974 Harold had a drive in the "Houndog" slingshot
AA/Fueller. A first half pass of 9.35 was followed by a full bore
run of 8.15/189m.p.h. but nearing the traps a blinding oil spray
caused him to lose vision. The car hit the barrier and was written
off but thankfully Harold emerged unscathed.
Harold retired from racing after this, his shelves at home lined
with over 40 trophies as well as several world records and strip
records in England, Germany and Sweden.
Also please take a look at this link to see Harold Bull's
amazing ΒΌ scale model engines, we guarantee you'll be
impressed!
http://www.stripduster.co.uk/site/1_4_Scale_Model_Engines.html