Former sportsman-level driver and winner Jeff Perrella, who stays involved on the sponsorship side, took a ride in Dixon’s Nitro x 2 at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Mich.
“He’s had that feeling,” Dixon said, but “you’d have thought he won Indy. That’s why I wanted to do this and eventually fighting to keep doing this. The people that do go for a ride appreciate the opportunity so much. Makes me happy to do.”
Just the same, it still is gratifying to compete in a traditional dragster. Dixon has been doing that, too, as part of his jam-packed schedule.
“Both fuel cars have been busy this year,” he said. “We licensed Cody in Gainesville in February; ran Will at Joliet in May; (had) a two-seater event in July; match race with Top Fuel car in Virginia with me driving, also in July; ran both cars in Martin (recently) with me driving; both cars again at World Series event in Cordova; Indy with Will driving; then the two-seater back up at Martin the weekend after Indy; and then at the end of September running Cody at St. Louis.”
In addition to that logistical chaos, Dixon has made trips to Australia where he has excelled in drag races at Rapisarda Autosport Int’l.
This summer, Dixon and his family carved out time for a European vacation. What Dixon called the “the trip of a lifetime” started with the Monaco Grand Prix Formula 1 race and ended after a visit to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“So happy I got to do it and blessed we got to go as a family,” Dixon said.
In recent years, he has served as an instructor for B.R.A.K.E.S. (Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe), the driver-education program aimed to train and teach teen drivers and their parents the importance of safe and responsible driving. It’s a nonprofit foundation former Top Fuel racer Doug Herbert established after his sons, James and Jon, lost their lives in a 2008 auto accident.
Dixon also helps wife, Allie, with her chocolate store and they watched son Donovan earn his private pilot license; took daughter Alanna back to Columbia, S.C., for her junior year of college; and saw son Luke launch his junior year in high school.
As for a return to full-time racing, Dixon said, “I’d say there’s a 90 percent chance that probably won’t happen — not because I don’t love the sport or love driving or love racing Top Fuel cars.
“It’s just the dollars and cents; getting the proper funding, trying to come up with a company that you can sell the sport to for what it costs to do it and then be able to show a solid return on their investment. It’s gotten very expensive,” Dixon continued. “It’s just the hard, cold facts. It takes an awful lot to compete at the level for a championship. I’m a long way away from being able to do that. So, I don’t get too caught up in missing it.”
Last year, Dixon participated in his third Summit Racing Equipment Midwest Drags “drag-n-drive” event. This journey he dubbed a “car-guy experience” was a four-day trip that started at Ohio’s Edgewater Sports Park, and coursed through Northern Indiana’s U.S. 41 Dragstrip and Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio, before concluding back at Edgewater. He didn’t win any trophies and wasn’t trying to. He simply was enjoying a relaxing return to drag racing, with all the camaraderie, joy and auto-tech splendor that initially drew him to the sport.
Life has zipped by almost as fast as a race-winning pass down a ribbon of asphalt, and Dixon has survived it all — throat cancer in 2015, supporting his wife through her own breast cancer trial, suffering broken vertebrae in a wild 2015 dragster ride at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway, mending from a broken leg in a 2000 crash at Memphis that also jarred one eyeball from its socket, having to pay to leave a contract and eventually losing the new ride, and crossing swords with the NHRA.
Still, Dixon said, “I always try to have a positive spin on everything.”
That goes for his take on the state of the sport.
“There are a lot of major things happening in drag racing right now, with tracks closing, the search for a new series sponsor, and a big-money PRO race in Bradenton (Fla.),” Dixon said. “One could look at each situation and pick out negatives, but I see great opportunity for new and fresh and different. And that could be great for the sport if everyone is rowing in the same direction.
“One thing is always certain: If you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same result. I don’t think mixing things up will hurt anybody or anything,” Dixon added. “It looks like it is working well for NASCAR to go to different venues and not just the same-old, same-old.”
It’s never the same-old, same-old with Larry Dixon — and that’s how he likes it.
This story appeared in the Sept 20, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
