With the change in ownership, the 'Old Master' was soon transformed into the 'Wheeler Dealer'. It's new home was in the D.C. suburb of Hyattsville, Maryland, in the garage of one Dickie Burgess, who became very instrumental in making Wheeler's venture a viable reality, given his many years as a skilled and successful top fuel tuner. 

[Although it wasn't known in late 1966, the former Old Master was to be the first of two Wheeler Dealer dragsters that Bruce would campaign. So, for sake of clarity, the first car will sometimes be referred to as "the Dealer," and the second car as 'WD2'.] 

Bruce originally had plans to drive his newly purchased car himself, but, as things turned out, his long legs made it all but impossible to drive the car comfortably (and, more importantly, safely).   So, it was at that point that an 18-year old New Jersey native, American University student Al "The Jersey Jew" Friedman, "volunteered" to become the Dealer's driver. 

It didn't take Bruce very long to make his decision.  Although he had never driven a dragster previously, Friedman had the right attitude and mindset, and Bruce felt confident that he could do the job.  And so, the Wheeler Dealer "team" was set ...

Al proved Bruce's intuition to be right on the money, and demonstrated this beyond a doubt in his first ride down a drag strip in a dragster, at California's Irwindale Raceway, New Years Day, 1967. In his first-ever pass, Al launched hard, like he'd been doing it all his life, smoking the car's tires like a pro. Shutting off very early, he coasted across the finish line with a nine-second elapsed time! 

Later, in March 1967, Al would be granted his Top Fuel competition license during the Wheeler Dealer's debut appearance at Maryland's Capitol Raceway. For the next year Bruce's team would run the Dealer as often as there were races to compete at. During this time they could be found at drag strips across the country, frequently racing in their 'backyard,' at Capitol Raceway and Cecil County Dragway, Maryland, but also at tracks in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas and California.

The Dealer was very successful at many local and regional races, with an excellent win/lose record, but it always seemed to have more than its share of problems when competing at National events. 

Despite this, the Wheeler Dealer did manage to get the attention of drag racing's elite, when, at the fabled 1967 U. S. Professional Dragster Championship, held in mid-July at LIONS Drag Strip, in Long Beach, California, Friedman piloted the Dealer to the #1 qualifying position. In doing so he topped a huge field of 64 cars, among them the very best in the land. And, his top qualifying time of 7.08-seconds, at 225-flat, also bettered the existing LIONS track records. In round one  at that event the Dealer won the race, and bettered its qualifying ET with a solid 7.06, but at the expense of a wasted supercharger. Unfortunately, Friedman found himself a loser in the next round, the victim of a 'gear lube bath' resulting from a loose end plate on the replacement blower. The second round loss notwithstanding, the entire Wheeler Dealer crew glowed with pride at their accomplishments during that Saturday night at The Beach!  And, rightfully so...

Later that season, at the 13th U. S. Nationals, held Labor Day weekend at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Friedman drove the Dealer to 'Top Speed of the Meet' honors, turning a fast 223.88 MPH, with a best-ever ET of 6.83-seconds. However, this occurred during another first round loss, via the 'big red eye', to the highly regarded Don 'The Snake' Prudhomme. 

Less than a month later, while racing at NASCAR's '67 Points Finals meet, held at Atco Dragway, New Jersey, Friedman found himself on the losing end one more time. The difference this time was that the Dealer lost while turning another outstanding 6-second pass, against the popular K&G Speed Shop 'Frantic Fueler', becoming one of the first cars ever to lose a race while running in the sixes. To top it off, the Dealer experienced its singular most devastating engine explosion on that pass. In the final analysis, it was determined that there was little to be salvaged from the mess that had been created, short of the motor's headers and valve covers! 

It should be mentioned now that Al's proudest moment, while driving for Bruce, was when he was notified that Drag Racing Magazine had named him their '1967 Rookie of the Year', a fitting acknowledgment for this talented young man. 

The 1968 drag racing season got underway for the Dealer with an appearance at California's Orange County International Raceway, for the winter PDA race early that March. And although the Dealer suffered another first round defeat, to the Ramchargers top fueler, the Wheeler-Friedman-Burgess team took home the trophy for 'Best Appearing Crew', awarded for the team's spiffy Las Vegas gaming dealers-theme uniforms. 

It was at about that time that Al received some personal 'bad news' in the form of a letter that began 'Greetings...' It appeared that Uncle Sam was requesting his presence at an Army basic training camp, thereby putting an end to his tenure as the Wheeler Dealer's driver. 

With Al suddenly out of the picture, Bruce arranged to have his vacancy filled by one Mr. "Bub" Reese, an experienced driver/tuner who was highly regarded on the Eastern fuel dragsters circuit.