If there was one thing I certainly did not see coming as the final pair of alcohol funny cars rolled into the water box last Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, it was this. Larry Dixon had been leveling the competition all day. His Camaro bodied funny car, tuned by Steve Boggs looked literally unstoppable. The car ran the quickest elapsed time of the entire event in the semi-finals, rocketing to a solid 5.466 elapsed time and setting a tone that seemed to say, “go ahead and freaking try it” to Ulf Leanders and crew, their competition in the final round. Then an unexpected disaster struck.
As Dixon staged the car and brought the revs up, a port fuel line broke off and began to fire hose the ground with alcohol fuel unbeknownst to anyone. The puddle was being made directly in front of the right rear tire and when Dixon stepped off the clutch and the car took off, it drove into the puddle. Having a rear axle equipped with a spool means that if there is uneven traction on either side, the car will violently respond and those responded more violently than anything I have ever seen in person at the drag strip.
Making a dead right hand turn the car got up on two wheels and passed just behind the tree and the hard accelerating Leanders, thankfully. Hitting the wall head on, the car rotated in the air and landed pointing back at the starting line. Dixon was getting the thing shut down as it briefly idled towards the starting line before he shut the car down and got out.
Larry’s fine, this is wild video and he had the line of the event when he addressed the crowd and said, “You guys have seen me do way crazier stuff than this!”
lotto ticket time!
Brian, you announce thru these panic situations with a level of aplomb that eludes most announcers. Good job!
Glad he is OK. Reminds me of Brainerd.