If it’s quarter-mile nitro racing that you want, it’ quarter-mile nitro racing that the Australian National Drag Racing Association will give you. And during the Santo’s Cranes Super 3 Extreme Extreme Drag Race at Australia’s Willowbank Raceway over the weekend, it was visiting Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon who blasted to the quickest quarter-mile elapsed time in drag racing since the NHRA’s 1000-foot era began in 2008. The three-time NHRA champion’s record-setting lap of 4.503 seconds at 332.02 MPH came just a day after he went for one of the most unbelievable rides ever witnessed on Friday when his dragster lost a wheel at close to 200 MPH and spun around 360-degrees without touching anything.
After a 4.68-second check out run on Friday evening after repairs were made from the incident, Dixon cranked out the 4.50-second elapsed time on his very first pass of the day on Saturday, bettering the long-standing 4.513-second Australian record that belonged to the late Scott Kalitta that was recorded at the Sydney Dragway in 2006.
“This weekend started out as a bit of a nightmare, but it has ended up a dream – to be able to come out here and race for the Rapisarda family and to break the Australian record has just been awesome,” said Dixon.
Dixon fell in the elimination round later in the day, but returned for a solo pass in the “preliminary final” (that decides the third and fourth finishers of the day) and backed up the earlier run with a stellar 4.543-second pass to officially claim the ANDRA Top fuel national record.
“Racing at this track in particular is so important to his family, we tried to claim the Louie Rapisarda Trophy for Santo but unfortunately that wasn’t meant to be, but we have done some wild and crazy things this weekend and I have certainly enjoyed my time here with my family.
“To be honest, Lee and I came over here and that is great but we couldn’t do anything if we didn’t have the guys in the crew – some of them have come over from the States with us while others are from Australia and they have just done a great job.”
Dixon’s celebrated NHRA crew chief Lee Beard was very happy with the result.
“When we discussed (coming to Australia) in the States, I told Santo I want to do it right and set the track and national records, and he laughed at me – but I don’t think he is laughing now,” chuckled Beard.
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