IN the drag racing circuit, there really is only one “Bob the Builder”.
Veteran dragster Bob Williams has been part of the competitive high-octane sport for close to 50 years.
“I’ve been around for a while at tracks across southern Australia … when a young bloke hears numbers called out, I often hear them call out, ‘you have got the old bloke’,” Mr Williams said.
“I take a lot of pride in beating them every now and then.”
Mr Williams has been given the honour of performing the first pass down Swan Hill’s new quarter-mile strip at Chisholm Reserve.
“I went to a drag meeting with my father when in primary school — he worked in the catering van and I got dragged along and got hooked onto it,” he said.
“I wanted to become a motor mechanic and I did then I got my licence.”
Mr Williams has raced at Calder Park, Sydney, Adelaide, Heathcote and Mildura.
“I love the buzz of building the cars and tuning them. I get a buzz out of driving them,” he said.
Mr Williams, a then Swan Hill District Car Club member, won the Victorian Drag Racing Championships for modified eliminator and was voted the 3SH-Lions Sports Star of the Month in 1979.
But, after his perfect gear change, he went from hero to zero.
“I jumped the start and took off before the green light so my confidence went down,” Mr Williams said.
He won the Victorian Championship in a B-class dragster powered by a 302 Ford engine.
Mr Williams designed and built the dragster which covered a distance of 400 metres in 9.5 seconds, crossing the finishing line at 228.5km/h.
“It’s the noise, the acceleration and the way other teams help you when you have a problem,” he said.
For more on this story grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (October 5, 2016)
