NHRA Motorsport Museum

Salt-flats racer Dick Kraft built his Bug, considered by many to represent the first dragster campaigned on a regular basis, by stripping his roadster down to the bare framerails to drag race it in July 1950. Using his Ford flathead engine for power, he posted top speed at 109.09 on Sept. 24, 1950, at Southern California's Santa Ana Drags. This machine, which Kraft nicknamed Bug and his racing companions called a "rail job," inspired the evolution of the modern dragster.

(© 1999 NHRA Photographic Services)

The carbureted Ford flathead powerplant that Kraft ran was the engine of choice for the bulk of his competitors, but the engine gave way within a few years to the Chrysler Firepower hemispherical cylinder-head-equipped engines. The car on display is a replica Kraft and Ron Roseberry built using many of the car's original components.

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