Former NHRA star Larry Dixon Sr. passes away at age 84
In NHRA annals, the photo is pretty iconic. Larry Dixon Sr. is smiling in the Pomona winner’s circle in 1970, clutching his NHRA Winternationals Top Fuel Wally in one hand and 3-year-old son Larry Jr. in the other, and the towheaded little tyke, who would grow to not only follow his father into the Top Fuel cockpit but become a three-time world champion, is flashing the V-for-Victory sign so prevalent in that era.
It could easily be a Norman Rockwell painting, that deep tie between a father and son, bound together by a common love, and for all 57-plus years that Larry Jr. has walked this planet, it was there. We lost Larry Sr. two weeks ago at age 84, but as his son will tell you, his dad lived enough lives for 10 people.
Before his dragstrip heroics, the senior Dixon was a Southern California street-racing immortal on legendary Van Nuys Boulevard in the late 1950s in a ’55 Chevy. He went on to drive blown gassers and early fuel dragsters and fuel altereds and then one of Southern California’s iconic Fuel Roadsters, the Fireside Inn entry, which was basically a roadster body attached to the chassis of a Top Fueler.
From there it was on Top Fuel cars — Darryl Greenamyer’s Smirnoff Special and the Howard Cams Rattler of Danny Porche and the Johansen family chief among them — before he and wife Pat went out on their own with the car that would win the ’70 Winternationals — the last front-engine car to take Top Fuel honors in Pomona.
When everyone else transitioned to rear-engined machines, Dixon was there with a machine that eventually became the only Chevy-powered car to crack the elite 16-car field that comprised the legendary Cragar 5-Second Club.
“I don't know what more he could have done in his life that he didn't already do,” said Larry Jr. “You can talk about his time with that ‘55 Chevy, and that would have made any person's life; somebody could have lived on those laurels for the rest of their life, but not him. And then he had the time with the Smirnoff car and the Rattler and the Fireside Inn and then the Chevy car. He had so many lives. Every decade, he had something that would make a person's career, and for him, that was just him. He loved everything he did. He didn't have any regrets. I just feel lucky being his kid.”
THE ‘55
Dixon’s green street-killer ’55 Chevy reportedly was the inspiration for Bob Falfa’s wicked black ’55 in the car-culture film phenomenon American Graffiti, and while many of the characters were based on people that director George Lucas knew in Northern California, two of the co-screenwriters grew up in “the Valley” and knew of the reputation of Dixon’s ’55 and probably used that as the basis for Falfa’s king of the street car ("Ain’t he neat?”). Dixon Jr. also believes that the film’s hero, John Milner with his bright yellow ’32 Ford coupe, was based on Burbank Road Kings member Tom Jandt.
Dixon’s green street-killer ’55 Chevy reportedly was the inspiration for Bob Falfa’s wicked black ’55 in the car-culture film phenomenon American Graffiti, and while many of the characters were based on people that director George Lucas knew in Northern California, two of the co-screenwriters grew up in “the Valley” and knew of the reputation of Dixon’s ’55 and probably used that as the basis for Falfa’s king of the street car ("Ain’t he neat?”). Dixon Jr. also believes that the film’s hero, John Milner with his bright yellow ’32 Ford coupe, was based on Burbank Road Kings member Tom Jandt.
“When I found that out, I got kind of geeked out about it because this movie is legendary, but when I talked to my dad about it, it literally wasn't a big deal to him,” he said. “That was just his way.”
Van Nuys Boulevard was also where he met his future wife, Pat. “I chased him down Van Nuys Boulevard and practically ran him off the road,” she told NHRA National Dragster in 1975. “I wanted to date him so bad I would have gone to great extremes.”
The ’55 was later sold and went through some other famous hands, including Funny Car drivers Jim Adolph and Dale Pulde, but Dixon had already moved on.
GOING LEGIT
When Dixon finally went legit on the dragstrip – purportedly because he lost his California driver’s license after too many midnight speed soirees – he ran a badass blown Willys and then a strip-based ‘55 before finding his true calling in dragsters.
The blown Chevy from those two cars ended up in the framefrails of influential car owner “Fat Jack” Bynum’s dragster and then a fuel altered that he rolled seven times at fabled San Fernando Raceway after the throttle stuck.
Dixon’s first major impact on the dragstrip was probably in the Fireside Inn AA/Modified Fuel Roadster, a roadster/dragster hybrid that ran in the sixes and even won Top Fuel — against conventional cars — for seven straight weekends at San Fernando Raceway.
Dixon’s first major impact on the dragstrip was probably in the Fireside Inn AA/Modified Fuel Roadster, a roadster/dragster hybrid that ran in the sixes and even won Top Fuel — against conventional cars — for seven straight weekends at San Fernando Raceway.
Dixon also drove the Smirnoff Special Top Fueler, a car that he was reunited with decades later when it was resurrected as a Cacklefest car.
TOP FUEL SUCCESS
After hooking up with Porche and the Johansens with the Howard Cams Rattler, Dixon began to become a regular winner in 1969. He was the low qualifier at the Winternationals and won the Orange County International Raceway PDA meet and the Hot Rod Magazine Championships at Riverside Raceway. He also was the No. 2 qualifier at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, where he went three rounds before breakage forced him to the sidelines.
After hooking up with Porche and the Johansens with the Howard Cams Rattler, Dixon began to become a regular winner in 1969. He was the low qualifier at the Winternationals and won the Orange County International Raceway PDA meet and the Hot Rod Magazine Championships at Riverside Raceway. He also was the No. 2 qualifier at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, where he went three rounds before breakage forced him to the sidelines.
In 1970, Dixon went out on his own in a Roy Fjastad-built dragster that bore his name and that of Pat, who supplemented her husband’s income as an engine builder by babysitting during the day and polishing brake shoes for a local business at night.
He qualified their lettered-but-still-unpainted new car No. 3 in the 32-car Winternationals field with a 6.78, behind only Gerry Glenn and the killer Schultz & Glenn car (6.74) and Dick Kalivoda’s Speed Equipment Wholesale Joker (6.77), then defeated Jim Paoli, a no-showing James Warren, Ronnie Hampshire in the Caspary-Waterman rail, and red-lighting Tommy Ivo to reach the final, where he defeated Tony Nancy, 6.86 to a troubled 7.48.
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