An update on Larry Dixon Jr.'s 

two-seat dragster 

On April 11 drag racer Larry Dixon Junior filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Glendora, California, based national Hot Rod Association (NHRA) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis. Dixon’s suit accused the sanctioning body of wrongfully suspending him and blacklisting him two years ago, which has deprived him of his livelihood. The plaintiffs in the suit are Championship Adventures, LLC, Larry Dixon, and Larry Dixon Racing, LLC.

According to the suit, Dixon, with 62 career NHRA victories and his investment partner Nick Salamone, a Philadelphia-area businessman, spent two years and “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to develop a unique two-seater car that caters to the popular fan-experience trend.  

Larry Dixon in happier times 

at the 2017 SEMA show

The two-seat dragster unveiled 

at the 2017 SEMA show

Dixon said the NHRA supported the idea he pitched it to NHRA officials in 2016, but the trouble began when the vehicle went on display at the Traxxas booth at the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) trade show in Las Vegas Nevada. Dixon distributed a press release unveiling Larry Dixon Top Fuel Experience, billing it as the “fastest ride in drag racing.”

Larry Dixon Jr.'s two-seat dragster 

as shown at the 2018 PRI show 

Dixon’s complaint claims 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 and conducted an unauthorized ‘inspection’ of the prototype of the two-seater car.” 

The NHRA official spotted an expired NHRA safety inspection 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 argues 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.”

Days after the SEMA show the NHRA issued a “statement of action against participant” notice which claimed Dixon had violated NHRA rules and suspended him indefinitely as a driver, team owner or crew member. Dixon’s suit 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 “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.”

All photos by the author