Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon suing NHRA

Larry Dixon 2-seater from Facebook page

Shocked, hurt and angered by the NHRA’s treatment in the wake of an ongoing dispute regarding his two-seat exhibition dragster, three-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon is fighting back.

Dixon filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Glendora, California, organization April 11 in Indianapolis with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. He is accusing the sanctioning body of wrongfully suspending him and blacklisting him two years ago, thus depriving him of his livelihood.

According to the suit, Dixon alleges that the NHRA’s action was “an obvious effort to use NHRA’s unfettered control over professional drag racing to control the market in which two-seater exhibition cars compete for business."

The complaint said Dixon, a California native who lives in Avon, Indiana, “has now been entirely deprived of his livelihood and sole source of income by this unjustifiable suspension — which is, in effect, a lifetime ban from NHRA — unless he relinquishes an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as the future profits that he could derive from that investment."

Plaintiffs in the suit are Championship Adventures, LLC, Larry Dixon, and Larry Dixon Racing, LLC.

“I really wish it hadn’t got to this point. I’m disappointed it had to get to this point," Dixon told Autoweek Friday evening. “I had been hoping things could get sorted out without having to go this route."

Dixon and investment partner Nick Salamone, a Philadelphia-area businessman, spent two years and, according to the lawsuit, “hundreds of thousands of dollars" developing the unique car that caters to the popular fan-experience trend.

He said he thought his project was proceeding with the NHRA’s blessing, because he had proposed it in 2016, with NHRA executives reportedly showing enthusiasm. Dixon said the idea was popular with the public, as well; he received more than 1,000 emails expressing interest in such a car. The trouble began when the vehicle went on display at the 2017 SEMA Show at Las Vegas.

The complaint says that on the opening day of the trade show, an NHRA official “strategically visited Championship Adventures’ booth at a time when Mr. Dixon was not there, intending to conduct an unauthorized ‘inspection’ of the prototype of the two-seater car." He spotted an expired safety sticker in the car, which Dixon said was there “simply because the chassis for the prototype for the two-seater dragster was originally a car that had competed in the NHRA."

Dixon’s argument was that “no one had removed the sticker, as there was no need to remove an expired sticker when the car was not built as a competition car."

That NHRA representative “demanded that the sticker be covered up." The individual in charge at the booth complied. Later, when Dixon returned to the vehicle, he said, he saw the sticker had been removed. Dixon claims an NHRA inspector removed it.

Dixon said within days he received a “statement of action against participant" notice from the NHRA. It claimed Dixon had violated NHRA rules and suspended him indefinitely as a driver, team owner or crew member. That notice accused Dixon had “implied NHRA’s approval" by leaving the NHRA-approved chassis tag on an unauthorized and unapproved two-seat dragster.

As a result, Dixon’s two-seater dragster is not permitted to make passes at NHRA-sanctioned dragstrips, which number approximately 130. It’s his contention the NHRA is trying to give a competitive edge to other two-seaters the NHRA has approved/endorsed.

Several times since the NHRA’s ruling, Dixon asked the organization “to produce the documentation that said I was told on numerous occasions to not build the car, and I still haven’t seen anything, whether by text, email, or phone correspondence." Susan Wade/AutoWeek