Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Larry Dixon looks for record-setting weekend in Ohio

Thursday, June 13, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Larry Dixon is positioned to join some elite company when he rolls his Miller Lite Top Fuel dragster into National Trail Raceway for this weekend's Pontiac Excitement NHRA Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.

Dixon, who already is off to a record-breaking start this season, will be trying to tie the record of six consecutive Top Fuel final-round appearances (six), held by Scott Kalitta and Cory McClenathan. Dixon also will attempt to become only the fourth Top Fuel driver to win back-to-back races at National Trail.

But the records apparently don't interest Dixon as much as padding his 203-point lead over rival Kenny Bernstein in his quest for his first NHRA championship.

"All I'm thinking about is the Columbus race," Dixon said. "We won last year and (crew chief) Dick LaHaie has done extremely well in the past at National Trail Raceway. Between his driving years and working as crew chief on Scott Kalitta's, as well as Doug Herbert's car, he's been in the winner's circle with every team he has worked with.

"I'm looking forward (to), and excited about going back there because it's a track where we've had performance."

Dixon has had "performance" at just about every stop on the NHRA circuit this season. He has been to the final round of eliminations nine times in the first 10 races, won six finals and posted a staggering 33-4 won/loss record.

Dixon's start surpassed the previous Top Fuel mark set in 1997 set by Gary Scelzi, who posted a 30-6 record in the first 10 races.

The only slip-up so far for Dixon came in the fifth race of the season -- the week after his win in Las Vegas in April -- at Houston Raceway Park, where he lost to Mitch King in the first round of eliminations after suffering a mechanical failure.

It turned out to be quite a weekend for the 22-year-old Cowin, who became the first drag racer to break the 500-kilometer-per-hour barrier outside of the United States en route to his win in the Castrol Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway near Brisbane.

Cowin, who drives the New York Yankees-sponsored dragster for Darrell Gwynn Racing in the NHRA, recorded a 506.07-kph (314.46-mph) pass during a qualifying run on Saturday. The run was the first over 500-kph outside the U.S. and the first over 310 mph.

On the same run, Cowin also recorded an elapsed time of 4.750 seconds, which is the quickest ET recorded outside America. It surpassed the previous best time of 4.81-seconds, set by Cowin's father and crew chief, Graeme, at the same event in 1997.

"What a weekend," Cowin said. "It's certainly been a dream come true for both myself and my team. This is the same car we ran in America last year and, even though we had to tame it down to meet the conditions, it still ran fast.

"Racing in America is every true drag racer's dream, but the chance to come home and do what we did in front of nearly 50,000 people at Willowbank is fabulous. It's something I'll never forget, as I'm sure the fans won't forget seeing the first run outside America over 500 kph."

Bernstein holds the world records with a time of 4.477 seconds and a speed of 332.18 mph, both set last year.

"When you're driving one of John's cars, there's a kind of intimidation effect where -- even when you're not running really good -- the competition knows that there's always the chance that you're going to jump up and throw low ET at them and they have to prepare accordingly," Densham said.

"The best example was when I won last fall at Memphis. I didn't have a dominant car. It probably wasn't better than my own car in similar situations. But I won rounds mainly because I was in a John Force race car and the other guys made mistakes trying to rotate the earth to beat us."

Densham goes into this weekend's Pontiac Excitement Nationals with a 23-point lead over Force.