Buoyed by a Top Alcohol Funny Car victory in his first appearance in that class, as well as a spin around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the request of auto racing legend Mario Andretti, three-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon is primed for another return to a dragster.
 
He’ll drive one of three Rapisarda Autosport International entries at the 50th Winternationals June 8-11 at Australia’s Willowbank Raceway, near Brisbane, Queensland. With Lee Beard as crew chief, Dixon will race with teammates Wayne Newby and Damien Harris.
Dixon owns the track’s elapsed-time record – 4.503 seconds – which he set in 2012. He last raced for RAI at Sydney Dragway in November 2016, the week between the Las Vegas and Pomona NHRA races.
 
“Anytime you get a phone call from Santo [team owner Rapisarda] to race for the family team is an honour and privilege," Dixon said. “Santo has assembled a great team with all the right equipment and crew, as well as having Lee Beard on board to tune the car. He has stayed current, even though he’s not on a fulltime NHRA car. I’m also excited to be returning to race at Willowbank.”
 
RAI said it has three goals for the Winternationals. One is for Newby to clinch the 2016-17 400 Thunder series championship. He needs only to qualify to accomplish that. The second aim is to record back-to-back Winternationals victories. Moreover, Rapisarda said he wants one of his drivers to be the first in Australian drag racing history to break the 4.50-second barrier.
 
“We’ve been knocking on the door for the last 12 months, and I think the Winternationals could see the record broken and the first pass under 4.50 seconds,” Rpisarda said. “To many involved in the sport, it’s the next frontier in Top Fuel. And I think that all the teams entered for the Winters would want to be the first into the record book. I’m quietly confident that one of our cars could break the barrier. Who it will be? I don’t know. All three of our cars are capable, as well as Darren Morgan and Kelly Bettes in the Lamattina entries. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Firstly, we want to win the Winternationals – and having Larry in the third car, our hopes have received a major boost.”
Ironically, Dixon made NHRA history in 1999 at Houston when he became the first driver to clock a sub-4.50-second run, with his 4.486.
 
“A 4.40 run is in our sights,” Dixon said. “All three Rapisarda tuners – [Rapisarda brothers] Santo Junior and Santino and Lee [Beard] –- would all love to run under the current record and dip into the 4.40 zone. If the conditions are right, then you could see history made.”
 
Dixon is on a bit of a roll, having won his maiden race May 22 in Tony Bartone’s Top Alcohol car at the Cavalcade of Stars.
 
And on his way to Norwalk that Thursday, he stopped by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Mario Andretti insisted that Dixon take a lap around the world-famous Brickyard in his Honda two-seater.
 
Dixon had experienced that “bucket-list item” about 10 years before, when the top speed was about 165 mph. But this time the two-seater peaked at approximately 194 mph.
 
“My opinion was at 165, there’s lots of lines around that track, and at 195, there’s less lines. And I imagine at 230, there’s even lesser lines on that track,” Dixon said. “I have a lot of respect for what they do.
 
“How cool! I got to go on the track with Mario Andretti. He’s still got it. He’s comfortable in his environment. He’s definitely not afraid – he gets on that track and gets on the gas. The line that you take, it comes out of the corner and come right to the wall. For him, it’s only 194. I don’t think he was too worried about it. It was great – a lifelong memory,” he said.
 
    
But sadly, as of this past Sunday, the drag racer isn’t the only Mr. Dixon who has ridden out a spectacularly frightening high-speed crash.
 
“No, I’m not. We’ve opened the club up,” Larry Dixon said, referring to Scott Dixon’s airborne accident in the Indianapolis 500 that slammed him into the guard wall as gravity took over. “I’m glad he walked away. He’s a good dude,”
 
Like Larry Dixon, Scott Dixon climbed from what was left of his destroyed car and miraculously appeared to be unhurt. But also like his drag-racing counterpart, Scott Dixon suffered an injury, although none as severe as one might expect. (Larry Dixon ended up with two cracked vertebrae and a banged-up knee from his wreck at Gainesville, Fla.) Scott Dixon shrugged it off, living up to his nickname “The Iceman.”    
 
Said Larry Dixon, “Anytime that you can get out of the car on your own power after an incident like ours, even if you’re bumped and bruised, whatever fractures, it’s still OK, not that bad.”
 
He said he’s “definitely going to find out who won” the G-meter comparison. He said his computer data recorded 109 Gs when his dragster broke apart and took flight at the Gatornationals. “I’m going to see what his hit.”
 
He sympathized with Scott Dixon’s rough stretch that week. After winning the pole position for the Indianapolis 500, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti were robbed at gunpoint in a fast-food drive-through lane. Said the NHRA star, “I guess if you have a long career, you have peaks and valleys. This was one of his valley moments.”
 
Larry Dixon hopes to have another peak moment at Willowbank.
 
“People bellyache about the long flights. But it doesn’t bother me. I’ve had 15-hour trips in the front seat of a rig [race hauler] or a motorhome. It’s5 hours on a plane, and I don’t have to drive. I can catch up on books and movies and then we’re there.”
 
Wheeling the race car for a few four-second passes is what has him excited.
 
“I’m looking forward to it, running down there with Lee,” Dixon said. “And we ran the Winternationals there last year and won that event, as well. It’s a great track with really good conditions. All of Santo’s equipment is top of the line. He’s got the best of everything. I have a great opportunity, I have a great crew. I jumped at the chance.”