Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Top Fuel champ confident he’ll break out of slump

Thursday, May 20, 2004 | 9:18 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.

When Larry Dixon arrived in Las Vegas last month for the spring NHRA event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he said he wasn't terribly concerned over his slow start.

At the time, Dixon was coming off a pair of second-round losses to open the season and had just been eliminated in the first round at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. The two-time defending NHRA Top Fuel champion promptly went out and advanced to his first final round of the season, where he lost to Tony Schumacher.

Through the first seven races of the 2004 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season, the Las Vegas race has been the highlight for Dixon, who has been ousted in the first round of eliminations at each of the past two races.

Dixon still isn't reaching for the panic button as he prepares for this weekend's Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, Ill.

"We need to get our car running better," Dixon said. "When you change as many things on the racecar as we've changed over the winter and after the first few races, there's a period where you're learning how to build horsepower and apply it to the racetrack, and that's what we're going through right now.

"If we get our car to run better, it will turn our season around. It's just part of the learning curve with all of this new equipment that we're using this season."

Dixon, who won 17 races the past two seasons, has not had a victory since he capped a three-race winning streak last August at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. He stands eighth in the NHRA Top Fuel standings, 261 points behind leader Schumacher.

"Are things as great as they have been in the last two years? Obviously not," Dixon said. "But are things as bad as they have ever been? Obviously not. We are still top 10 in points; I can see first place from where we are. It's out there, but I can still see it."

Team owner Don Prudhomme likewise is not in a panic mode over the team's slump.

"That's just the way it is," Prudhomme said. "You better enjoy the good times when you have them because you're gonna have more bad times than good. We won championships two years in a row and those were really good times for the team.

"If you win the title each year, the competition would quit. It's very, very competitive this year -- the toughest it's been in years. You just have to suck it up and keep going. I have complete faith in Larry and (crew chief) Dick LaHaie and the rest of the team."

McClenathan defeated Clay Millican in the final for his first victory since the 2002 season finale at Pomona Raceway -- a span of 30 races.

Savoie, a three-time NHRA Pro Stock Bike champion, defeated Shawn Gann in the final for her 32nd career victory and first since last June at Route 66 Raceway.

A test-and-tune session, the second Hankook Tires Drifting Series event and "Midnight Mayhem" occupy The Strip and the adjoining drifting arena Friday evening while Junior Dragsters, the Jerry's Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series and "Motorcycle Madness" take to the track Saturday.

A complete schedule can be found at www.lvms.com.