Chris King & The Fool's Gold Plymouth Duster Funny Car

 

 

 

This Duster bodied Nitro Funny Car is also a '27 Fuel Altered based out of West Palm Beach , Florida .  Michael Harrigan is the owner and Crew Chief  & Chris King is at the controls .

Chris has been a full-time firefighter for 23 years, the last 10 in The Windy City.  He assigned to  Special Operations Heavy Rescue. 

Some of his work includes going into fires in collapsed buildings, and pulling out people trapped under rubble, saving people in elevators,  & SCUBA diving into Lake Michigan.

 

 
King has dreamed of being a drag race driver since he was a kid "growing up at Great Lakes Dragway .  He went to all the Labor Day races & every nitro and jet-car show 'Broadway Bob' had," he said. "I've always wanted to get to the big leagues, and a few years ago he decided that it was 

 time to get a Top Fuel license .

  

Chris earned his Nitro Funny Car competition license in Paul Richards nitro funny car under the guidance of Paul Smith late in 2018. King has been actively pursuing sponsorship partners.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 Team owner Michael Harrigan is the owner of The Kustom Emporium along with Wild Card Racing.   He has painted several race cars for Paul Richards Racing, Chris Karamesines and Paul Smith .

 Mike states that they have a good  safe car and it runs consistently without hurting it. He loves racing and looks forward to having fun and success with Chris and the Chaos Series.

 

King requested and was issued the competition number 343, a significant number for its importance to him personally and to the fire service as it is the number of FDNY firefighters killed on 9/11 during the World Trade Center terrorist attack. 

He requested that number to pay tribute to those that died in the line of duty that day.

 

             Here is a view of the

           1927 Fuel Altered body .

 

The motor is a Brad Anderson 498 Chrysler Hemi with a 6-71 Hampton blower, 21 gal. fuel pump, and a 2 speed Lenco transmission connected to a fabricated 9" Ford floater rear.

                                                            

They have been match racing it for the last 5 years. 

In 2019 they did one Funny Car Chaos (FCC) event and planned on the full season in 2020. They ran well in the first FCC event in Lufkin, TX. in March and then Covid hit the nation . Their next FCC outing was in Eddyville Iowa. Mike said that they qualified #5 but hurt the motor in q2 and that sidelined us for the rest of the season.

                                               Photos courtesy of Wildcard Racing. 2020
 

 

They are looking for sponsors for the Duster for some NHRA events in their Nitro Funny car class.  It is a chance for Chris to expand his career.

There  are some videos on the teams Facebook page :

 (Wildcard Racing)

The team thanks Paul Richards, Jim Gifford and Mike Smith for all their help .

 

Thank you to Michael Harrigan & Chris King for sharing your story,  I look forward to updating your story as your team progresses .