The resemblance may be striking and the overall dimensions quite similar, but this wild creation you see before you is definitely not your son or daughters’ Junior Dragster.

Konarik’s unique dragster, constructed by renowned Junior Dragster chassis builder Motivational Tubing, measures 188-inches in wheelbase and is certified to run 7.50 in the 1/4-mile.

The vision of former ATV sand drag racer Steven Konarik and noted snowmobile racing gurus Craig Campton and Glenn Hall, this Junior Comp-style dragster displays a staggering weight-to-horsepower ratio, allowing it to cover the quarter-mile quicker and faster than you’d ever expect from something so small. But despite what’s seen from afar, there are a number of similarities between this car and a typical single-cylinder Junior Dragster that set it apart from other cars like it. Most notably, in the chassis itself.

Konarik, a native Texan and catering business operator by trade, stepped out of the sand drag racing arena when the racing facilities in his area were shuttered, leaving him with few places within driving distance to race. Wishing to stay with the technology that he knew — namely high-powered snowmobile engines — he looked to drag racing as his next logical step. But what he envisioned wasn’t a full-scale dragster with a big block Chevrolet in it, but rather, a pint-sized racer with power from a potent Arctic Cat snowmobile engine.

Power, all 600-plus horses of it, comes from a modified 1,150cc Arctic Cat snowmobile motor, with extra motivation provided b an intercooler 62mm Precision turbocharger.

“With our catering business, we stay extremely busy, so this is kind of a toy for me,” Konarik explains. “Since I can’t sand drag race anymore, I figured I’d go asphalt drag racing. With plenty of tracks in the area, this deal is far more accessible.”

With a connection through their past exploits of snowmobile power, Konarik partnered with Campton and Hall to draw up the plans for the new venture, and the trio then set about to make it a reality.

The first thing they needed was a chassis, and a deal was struck with Arlen Wiens of Motivational Tubing, a longtime and renowned Junior Dragster chassis builder, to construct a one-off car based on the company’s Junior Comp dragster, which is a category within the NHRA Junior Drag Racing League for motorcycle and snowmobile-powered cars for drivers aged 14 and older. According to Campton, a mockup engine was delivered to Wiens’ shop in Kansas, and the chassis, which is certified up to 7.50 in the quarter-mile, was constructed specifically for it.

“It’s a beautiful piece in the fit and finish and the fabrication. Arlen did a fantastic job on it,” says Campton.

As trick as the car itself is, it’s the engine, power adder, and clutch combination that really turns heads. Campton, who operates Wisconsin-based Hypersports, was tasked with delivering the horsepower for the project. In addition to his experience with snowmobiles, for which Hypersports is best known, Campton brings an impressive drag racing resume to the project, as he previously worked for the NHRA Pro Stock teams of Victor Cagnazzi and Gray Motorsports, and also had a hand in building engines for Jim Yates at one time.

With enough power to run into the 7.70’s to date and potentially the low sevens when the combination has been ironed out, you’d better believe this little beast needs those front and rear wings to keep the car under control at speed. Initial testing without proved to be rather exciting for the team.

The engine, as Campton explains, is a two-cylinder, even-fire Suzuki mill manufactured for Arctic Cat that was originally developed and sold in naturally-aspirated form in 2007 before a refresh in 2009 for the newly-launched Arctic Cat snowmobile program in that brought about turbocharging.

“These engines are essentially one-half of a Suzuki Hayabusa motor. They’re originally 1,050cc, but this one that I did for Steven is 1,150. The stroke has been taken from 70mm up to three-inch, and I’ve developed a really good intake and exhaust chamber for the four-valve-per-cylinder heads they make for these motors, which have been CNC-ported. We’ve also gone through the motor and had new aftermarket Carillo rods and CP pistons made for it.”

Essentially half of a Suzuki Hayabusa engine, the Arctic Cat powerplant has custom Hypersports four-valve-per-cylinder heads, aftermarket rods and pistons, and a custom camshaft design, also from Hypersports.

The heads and camshaft are both custom Hypersports pieces. The engine also runs on a dry sump oiling system, just like it’s larger drag racing counterparts.

The motor still sports a stock intake manifold, which has undergone CNC machining by Campton to install a V-band flange, all of which leads to the money-maker — the 62mm Precision 6262 turbocharger — that’s paired with a fabricated intercooler and throttle body made by Hypersports and controlled via a VI-PEC electronic fuel injection system. With an engine virtually identical to this one, Campton captured the Dynotech Research snowmobile horsepower record at a whopping 604 horsepower at an operating RPM of 9,400. But as he shared with us, this particular mill in Konarik’s dragster is not only more refined, but has also been run with additional boost; but it’s yet to go on a dyno, so exact power numbers are all but an estimate.

“It’s for this reason why the results we’ve had with Steven’s car to date aren’t that impressive,” says Campton. “We’re running low boost, and therefore we’re way, way down on power compared to where we can go with it, just simply because we’ve been struggling to get the car down the track.”

In early quarter-mile tests, the car displayed a number of drivability issues, which isn’t too surprising given the car and driver weight of around 850 pounds while making more than 600 horsepower. So the team went back to the drawing board with Wiens, the rear wing was put back on the car, and a Top Fuel-style front wing was fabricated by Motivitional Tubing to help plant the car at speed.

Thus far, the car has been as quick as 4.94-seconds to the eighth-mile at 143 miles per hour, and 7.77 at 168 to the quarter.

“There are some things we’re still working through with the car,” Campton shared. “We’ve seen some flex in the rear axle, and the car tends to bounce a little at the hit and just beyond sixty-foot, so we’re having a steel 300M axle manufactured for it that we think will make it act more like a hard tail dragster. Once we get where the car is very drivable where we can introduce more of the power that we’re not using, we fully expect to be able to run similar to the car in Australia that holds the world record for snowmobile power — or perhaps even quicker.”

“For the first 600 feet, the car is all over the place,” adds Konarik. “It’s not actually tire shaking, but it’s hopping. The car is so light that we can’t get it to transfer the weight. So now we’re trying to get it to sixty-foot in the 1.0-second range. Once the downforce kicks in, it settles down and goes.”

It doesn’t get much more unique than this — electronic fuel injection, a dry sump oiling system, and an intercooler feeding the Precision 6262 turbo.

The car utilizes an STM-built primary and secondary clutch with a belt, very similar in design to that used on Junior Dragsters, that’s taken right off an Arctic Cat racing snowmobile. The power is then transferred through a jackshaft connected the secondary to a chain that drives the 15-inch Weld Racing rear wheels, which are wrapped in 26 x 10 x 15 Pro Stock Motorcycle tires. And while similar from afar, the chassis is 188-inches in wheelbase — around 30-inches longer than a Junior Dragster, and is substantially beefier in all aspects to meet the SFI chassis requirements.

As both Konarik and Campton point out, it’s the more direct-drive clutch combination, rather than the manually-shifted transmissions that other cars like it are running, that’s made it extra-challenging to get down the track.

Campton, who has been very hands-on with the car from the beginning and records and analyzes all of the data from each run, shared that he fully expects it to run in the 7.40’s by years’ end, putting them in striking distance of the United Mini Drag Racers Association world record that stands in the high 7.30’s (the record was set with motorcycle-powered car).

From there, the logical question would be: can the car run in the sixes? As Konarik pointed out, the chassis is only certified to 7.50, but if they can get it to hook and remain planted early on, the potential is there to go really quick. But chassis certification limits will likely put the brakes on any big numbers….if they make a habit out of sub-certification numbers, anyway.

To bridge the certification gap, Konarik would effectively have to jump to a full-size Super Comp-style dragster, which would defeat the purpose of the teams’ goal to go fast on such a small scale.

Interestingly, this isn’t the only car of its kind, past or present. In addition to the handful of other cars around the world that are part of the loosely-organized UMDRA, the concept of lightning-quick mini dragster goes back a ways, and even George Bryce of Star Racing and NHRA fame built one of these very cars with a Suzuki engine more than two decades ago. But today, it’s racers like Konarik, Austrialian racer and world record holder Blaze Hansen, and a few others who are carrying the torch for this very niche segment of the drag racing world.

Premiere Events, Kurant Events, Pathway To Fitness, and Lucas Oil have all been supporters of Konarik’s new venture onto the asphalt, as his wife Carrie, and without them, he says, he’d never have been able to take on such a lofty and unique project. With their backing and the know-how of Campton and Hall in his corner, Konarik has waded out into uncharted waters with a vehicle unlike any other in the world, and whether they collect some records or not, what they’ve already accomplished is something that’s sure to be talked about for years to come.

Photos courtesy Hypersports