Larry Dixon should thank the equipment in his dragster for saving his life.
Dixon was involved in a scary crash during the third round of qualifying of the National Hot Rod Association Gatornationals Top Fuel event on Saturday.
During his run, his dragster buckled in the center while going about 285 miles per hour. The dragster exploded and came apart sending Dixon’s dragster into the air.
Dixon twisted and landed right side up as he hit the wall.
The Auto Plus Raceway in Gainesville went completely quiet.
You could hear a pin drop in the press box and in the grandstands. The look of concern on the faces of spectators and in the voice of the announcer calling the race told the entire story of the situation.
People in the grandstands were standing, looking across the quarter-mile track to see if Dixon was going to be all right.
A sense of relief came over everyone when Dixon was shown on the jumbotron, alert and conscious, while talking with the medical staff checking up on him down the track.
“What I tell people, it’d be like going to Disneyland. … It’d be like being on a rollercoaster and you go off and fly off the track,” Dixon said. “Just got to wait to land and hope everything is doing its job for you.
“My car is a mess, but I’m here.”
The slightest mistake made with a car with 7,000 horsepower and reaches speeds of more than 300 miles per hour can be costly.
Dixon and his crew had no early indication if there was something wrong with his dragster before the race.
“I mean, when I got out I almost expected to see something wrong with the back half that caused to do what it did,” Dixon said. “And when I got out of the car and looked at it, everything’s there.
“We haven’t had the chance to really take a look at it and get that information.”
Dixon was able to walk out his dragster under his own power being accompanied by medical personnel, something he wasn’t able to do 15 years ago.
In Memphis in 2000, he wasn’t able to walk off the track after a crash. Instead he had a helicopter ride to the hospital after suffering a broken leg and having one of his eyes come out of its socket.
“All the improvements in the car in the 15 years since I last did this, it’s made a difference.”
After the accident in Memphis, Dixon ordered a HANS device (Head and Neck Support device) to provide more safety for him. Dixon was the first person wearing the HANS device full time on the track.
It would take another six or seven years before the NHRA would mandate all drivers wear the device.
“You learn from all these incidents and you try to make things safer, so you can go through stuff like that and be OK,” Dixon said. “Whether we race tomorrow or not, that’s one thing, but I’m here talking to you. Last time it wasn’t an option.”
After walking away from his crash in Gainesville, Dixon was asked if he feared for his life at any point in time. His response was “no.”
“I don’t know that you can explain it unless you do it, but I feel invincible in that racecar,” Dixon said. “Driving to the track, I’m more fearful for my life that I am in that car. That car’s designed to go through that.
“No, man. You don’t fear. You’re just counting on your equipment to do the job for you.”
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Emergency officials inspect the area near the finish line at Auto Plus Raceway in Gainesville following Top Fuel drag racer Larry Dixon's crash on Saturday at the 2015 Gatornationals.
Top fuel drag racer Larry Dixon speaks with media members hours after crashing during a qualifying round in the 2015 Gatornationals on Saturday at the Auto Plus Raceway in Gainesville.
