By Craig Revelle – Finish Line Web Design
As a young kid, Billy Dunn caught the racing bug early. With legendary DIRTcar Big Block Modified driver “Barefoot” Bob McCreadie working out of the Number One Speed race shop owned by Billy’s father Norm, he learned quickly from the best in the business.
Billy first got his start in racing at Can Am Motorsports Park. At the age of seven, Dunn got into BMX bike racing, and when the track made the decision to close up the bike track and turn it into a kart track, Dunn made the transition as well. Dunn first started in Karts in 1992, and for the next nine years he honed his racing skills by winning over 100 races and multiple championships along the way.
Looking for a new challenge, Dunn moved up to the popular IMCA Modified division at the beginning of the 2001 racing season. He raced IMCA for the next two seasons, Collecting 13 feature wins and multiple top five and top ten finishes before making the jump into the Big Block Modified division.
“I have been very fortunate to have great people behind me year after year”, says Dunn. “Dad (Norm) and Uncle Tim with Number One Speed and other people like Jimmy Peterson from Fast Lube of Watertown have been there since we started racing Karts”.
Dunn has enjoyed a great deal of success the past few seasons winning the track championship at his home track Can Am Motorsports Park for the past three seasons. Dunn has also run with the Big Block Modified Super DIRTcar Series for the past five seasons, finishing inside the top 15 each year.
In DIRTcar’s biggest event, Super DIRT Week, Dunn has established himself as a perennial contender with a solid performance each of the last two years. In 2010, Dunn had a fast car, but fell victim to a mechanical failure. This past year, Dunn won the outside pole awards, won his qualifying heat, won the Safety-Kleen Shootout, and once again had a fast car but was caught up in a mid race accident.
Dunn has worked hard to get to where he is today, whether it be at Number One Speed, or at the other family run business that operates at the same Bradley St. location. Norm and his late wife Debbie established Frosty’s Ice Cream in 1988 and has been a big part of Billy’s life since he was old enough to begin working.
While racing is Dunn’s passion, he now works full time at Number One Speed in Watertown, and has taken the reins of the Number One Speed Shock Service. He has a Shock Dyno on the premises, and provides full shock service from maintenance to complete rebuilds. Knowing the importance of shocks, chassis set up and understanding how both of them relate to each other is one of the reasons he is successful on the track. Dunn specializes in Integra and Bilstein racing shocks, and also carries the new Integra Sportsman shock for 2012.
In 2012, Dunn will be back behind the wheel of his Big Block Modified, racing weekly at Can Am Motorsports Park. He will also run a limited Empire Super Sprints schedule, and hopes to follow the Big Block Modified Super DIRTcar Series Schedule.
For more information on Billy Dunn and the Number One Speed race team, please check out our website, www.billydunn49.com.
