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Al Wagner's 1970 Plymouth Duster
Al Wagner's 1970 Plymouth Duster
Al Wagner started Drag Racing in a 13.0 second Plymouth Road Runner
back in 1972.
He kept improving it and reached 11.0 second runs back in the
early 80's with a steel block 383/4 speed trans. He ran the car for over 13 years, and sold it in 1982 .
Al stated , It was time to step it up.
In 1983 he purchased the current Duster we see here .
With just a little chassis work Al
ran bracket races with it and also super street (10.90 index).
He had an
8th place finish in the S/ST class back in 1986, and raced the car in that
current state until he decided to totally re-chassis the car in 1989.
The
car was taken to Vallow Body & Chassis in Pontiac, IL. The car is
currently a round tube chassis , with a funny car cage, 4 link rear , and a strut front end.
For power a 572 Wedge was installed with aluminum rods.
The block and heads are by Indy Cylinder Head, with dual 1050 Demon carbs on gasoline. The engine was
built by Opel Engineering in Streamwood, IL.
Al stated the Duster has a 3 speed automatic transmission built by Rick Allison of A & A
transmission in Camby, IN. , he his on top of his game doing
transmissions. All the internal parts and convertor are courtesy of Craig at
Coan Engineering in Kokomo, IL.
And it has a 5700 stall speed converter .
Barker Automotive in Bartlett, IL. was responsible for the car being stored, maintained and tuned week in and week out.
The rear end is a Dana 60 of course , with 4:10 gears, strange spool
& axles with 33 X 15.5 X 15 Goodyear Eagles mounted on bead-lock
wheels by OMF in Riverdale Ca.
The only other long time sponsor He would like to thank would Be Alex at Trendz in Chicago, IL. for supplying him with any needed parts at or below cost . The car runs very consistent thanks to the
Crew Chief software that is used with the help of Don Higgins (owner of Crew
Chief software) and of course his crew of Karen & Sean, couldn't do
it without them .
The car has been raced through much of the entire Midwest in
multiple classes whether in bracket racing at his home track, Route 66
raceway in Joliet, IL. Or as a proven winner in S/P, S/G and S/C. He
also runs many "Monster Mopar" races and has been very successful at
those races as well.
Some awards he's won over the years would include an 8th place
finish in S/ST, Family of the year award (rt 66), Team Spirit award
(Indianapolis Raceway Park) Best appearing award at the Division 3 bracket
finals in Indy, 2012 track champion and of course the most coveted
award any NHRA racer can receive is his one and only "Wally" , And they had also won the Division III best appearing crew award at the bracket finals.
Look at the tin work and the gauge layout.
It's no wonder that this car received the
Best Appearing Award .
In this view we can see how clean the wiring install there's nothing out of place to distract the driver.
covering those huge rear slicks and Dana 60 rear
with 4:10 gears.
Note the embossed Pentastar between the tubs,attention
to detail is what wins races .
It runs 8.20's on motor (NO adders) at 162 MPH.
Photos courtesy of Wagner Motorsports. 2020
Many thanks to Al and his crew for sharing his story with us.
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