Larry Dixon wins Indianapolis O'Reilly Raceway NHRA Top Fuel

O’Reilly Raceway, Indianapolis Sep 6th: The Al-Anabi team from Qatar secured their 10th win of the season in the Top Fuel class with stellar driver Larry Dixon in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series 56th Mac Tools U.S. Nationals.

Larry Dixon was the No.1 qualifier during Saturday night’s third round of eliminations; he recorded a 3.776-sec pass at 324.36 mph. The elapsed time set the O’Reilly Raceway Park record, and the speed was Dixon’s career best.

Dixon has now been the No.1 qualifier six times this season, and 46 times in his career. He now leads the Top Fuel points table with 2234

In the eliminations heats, Dixon defeated Bruce Litton, Steve Torrence, Shawn Langdon and Cory McClenathan on his way to the Al-Anabi team’s 10th win of the season. Dixon now has 58 career wins in 102 final-round appearances.

Each Labor Day weekend, NHRA racers and fans descend on O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis for what’s described as the biggest, oldest, richest, and most prestigious drag race in the world. They say that no career is truly complete without a win at drag racing’s grandest event. The fabled strip is regarded by many as one of the smoothest on the circuit, and the this event now serves as the kickoff for the Countdown playoffs and a six-race run to the Full Throttle championships.

Dixon leaves the first of six races in the Countdown to the NHRA Playoffs with a 46-point lead in the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel point standings.

Larry Dixon with Top Fuel Champions trophy 2010

“As big as winning a championship is, this is the one everybody wants to win. Winning one is unbelievable, but winning four is little incredible. It was a great job by (crew chief) Jason McCulloch, (team manager) Alan Johnson and everybody on the Al-Anabi team. Sheikh Khalid was in the house, so it’s great to win with him here.  The whole Johnson family was here, too, with Everett, Agnes and Pam. They sacrificed a lot at this race track, and I am very happy to win for them, too. Everybody’s talking about Tony (Schumacher) and me this season, but it seemed like we raced Cory just about every round in qualifying and then in the final.  He’s not gonna go away.  That’s a great car and a great team, and we know we’ll have to contend with them for the rest of the season.”

Rod Fuller fell in the opening round of eliminations at the wheel of his Abu Dhabi/Yas Marina Circuit dragster on Monday having displayed an outstanding performance right up to the crucial moment.

“We can be very satisfied, given the fact we battled mechanical issues and bad luck in our first two runs. We’re in the show and now we just need to be consistent.”

This event is the third Abu Dhabi team appearance at the Full Throttle NHRA series and part of a four-event summer tour in the United States, culminating in North Carolina in one weeks time.

The Abu Dhabi Yas Marina Circuit Drag Racing Team was quickest and fastest at the end of day three of the  Nationals.  Prior seven time Top Fuel winner ‘Hot Rod’ Fuller delivered two stellar runs, in temperatures similar to UAE.

A day after making the quickest run on the final day of qualifying, Fuller raced in ninth qualifying position, matched up against eighth qualifier Steve Torrence, who was subsequently ousted in the finals by Al-Anabi Dixon.

Fuller’s car posted a quicker, but losing pass of 3.846 seconds at 312.50 mph as Torrence carded the win light with a lap of 3.855 at 316.30.

“There’s not much to say,” Fuller said. “I had a brain freeze. The foot and brain weren’t in sync. That falls on me. I didn’t do my job. Lee (Beard) and the guys gave me a great race car and we should have been one of the cars to win this race today. We’ll go to Charlotte in two weeks and try and do better.”

On Saturday qualifying Fuller posted an elapsed time of 3.840-seconds to move solidly into the field  in the thirteenth qualifying position after clocking an opening-night run of 4.026-seconds, unfortunately, losing traction mid-track the Abu Dhabi car broke a throttle cable on the pass, however he powered to a lap of 3.840 at 318.17 to finish ninth in the order.  On Friday, qualifying also started badly, by dropping a cylinder and slowing to a lap of 4.026 seconds at 289.14 mph.

Both cars will be back in action Sept. 17-19 for the third annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina.