Larry Dixon offers a word of caution to the competition.

The Alan Johnson/Al Anabi team may have stumbled but they haven’t fallen. This weekend’s NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway could tell the story.

“It’s no secret our team isn’t getting the performance we all want, but I think we may have started down a path that could give us some information,” Dixon explained. “Our current car is a Brad Hadman chassis. For almost my entire career before this year, I’ve driven a Murf McKinney chassis.  We are doing some research to determine if the different chassis react differently with regard to steering input. If that ends up being the case, I may not have been communicating effectively with Jason. (crew chief Jason McCulloch).”

Dixon opened the season with a DNQ in Pomona but thundered back to win the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville two races later. Since that victory the team has steadily backtracked to a semi-final, quarter-final and then two weeks ago a first round loss. Amidst Lofty Expectations, the Alan Johnson Racing Al Anabi Team Forges Ahead …

Larry Dixon offers a word of caution to the competition.

The Alan Johnson/Al Anabi team may have stumbled but they haven’t fallen. This weekend’s NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway could tell the story.

“It’s no secret our team isn’t getting the performance we all want, but I think we may have started down a path that could give us some information,” Dixon explained. “Our current car is a Brad Hadman chassis. For almost my entire career before this year, I’ve driven a Murf McKinney chassis.  We are doing some research to determine if the different chassis react differently with regard to steering input. If that ends up being the case, I may not have been communicating effectively with Jason. (crew chief Jason McCulloch).”

Dixon opened the season with a DNQ in Pomona but thundered back to win the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville two races later. Since that victory the team has steadily backtracked to a semi-final, quarter-final and then two weeks ago a first round loss.

The team has labored feverishly to open the lines of communication since the early Commerce loss.

“In the time between Atlanta and St. Louis, we have been working on the things we’ve learned, and hopefully, they will bring us improved performance,” Dixon said. “We have a bit more direction in figuring out what’s happening to the car, but the best news in all of this is that we are learning to communicate better within our team.  We all hope better communication and some new research will help us in the long run, and starting that process at St. Louis would be huge.”

Throughout this slump teammate Del Worsham has been a great source of inspiration for Dixon.

“One of the coolest parts of this whole process is that Del called me to talk about all of this, and he made some suggestions as to how we could work through this process.  It’s really cool to have a teammate like that; it’s one thing to be on the same team, but it’s something completely different to reach out and take an active role in what’s happening.  I really appreciate his input, and I love having a teammate like that.”

Maybe misery enjoys company because Worsham is facing similar, if not more overwhelming frustrations than Dixon. Both drivers entered the season with lofty expectations from the racing community.

Since driving his way to a semi-final finish at the NHRA Springnationals in Houston, Tex., Worsham has yet to win in the first round. In Atlanta he went down to his final qualifying attempt just to make the field with 17 entries at the event.

“We are definitely not getting the results we want, and we all know how good this team can be when we find some solid consistency,” Worsham explained. “I’ve been saying it for the last three races, and I hate to sound like a broken record, but we are still trying to get to the point where we can make solid runs on a regular basis.  We didn’t like our results at Atlanta, but we left there with some very positive signs.”

Dixon has never won at Gateway International Raceway while Worsham has one to his credit during the 2003 season.

Advertisement