Ahead of the MOPAR Canadian Nationals, The Star talks to drag racing champion Larry Dixon

This is a lesson for all communications specialists, public-relations practitioners, media aides, press secretaries, et al, who think their job is to control the message and to make reporters part of the PR process: the best stories come out of conversations.

I was thinking this the other day as I interviewed three-time world NHRA drag-racing champion Larry Dixon, who’s going to be in Grand Bend, Ont., this weekend for the 18th annual MOPAR Canadian Nationals. I’d called Dixon at the behest of a friend who wanted me, essentially, to plug the event. What I got out of our chat was a lot more.

Unlike a situation I found myself in earlier this year at the Grand Prix du Canada in Montreal, where I got to interview four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, but only after I gave the questions in advance to his PR assistant at Ferrari, who gave only half of them back to me and then stood there to make sure I didn’t try to slip something in that she hadn’t “approved,” this interview with Dixon was a total pleasure.

I called him up and he answered the phone. Can you believe that? In this business, if you try to call the mayor of Toronto, or a civil servant in Ottawa, or a baseball player for the Blue Jays, you have to jump through hoops. Like the time, years ago, when I tried to interview Danny Sullivan before the Molson Indy and I had to go through a PR firm, who handed me off to his secretary, who said Mr. Sullivan would call me back in a few days but when he did I only had 10 minutes because he was a very busy man. When we did talk, he sounded like he was a hurry to go to the bathroom.

That same year, I also had to do a story for the Molson Indy program on Pancho Carter, a sprint car star from the old school who was in the final year of his contract with the Leader Card Racing CART team. I called the AT&T operator and asked her for his number in Brownsburg, Ind., which she gave me. I called and his wife, Carla, answered and said sure, he’d be only too happy to talk to me but I’d have to wait till he finished “taking out the trash.” When he did come on the line, we talked for an hour.

And that was the way it was with Dixon and it was during this conversation that I found out something I did not know, which is the point of interviews. I had asked him how come he wasn’t running full-time in the NHRA Top Fuel division and he told me he didn’t have sponsorship and couldn’t afford to go racing on his own dime. So I said, how difficult is it to get sponsorship these days? And this is what he said:

“When you approach a company or a corporation, they want to know two things: how many attend the events and how many watch on television. You can have a fancy presentation and look like a million bucks but that’s all they want to know — how many are in the stands and how many watch on TV. They then take those two numbers and put them into a computer and there’s a program now that tells them two things instantly — 1) whether it’s even worth considering and 2) if it is, the return on investment. This computer formula they use now works for everything from sponsorship for race cars to sponsorship for a women’s softball tournament. It tells them how much it will cost them and how much they can expect to get back, as a result.

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“Besides personal relationships with marketing executives, which always helps, there’s another variable that can work for big teams looking to close a deal and that’s the business-to-business aspect. Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske, for instance, have huge automobile dealer networks throughout the U.S. So Penske can say to Mobil 1, ‘Sponsor my team and I’ll put Mobil 1 into all the cars in all my dealerships.’ That’s a lot of oil. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have a bunch of companies I can do business-to-business deals with.”

The 50-year-old Dixon, who’s had to battle injuries as well as cancer in his life, said to be able to afford to run the full NHRA circuit, you need $2.5 million to do it properly (car, tractor-trailer and other infrastructure, 12 engines and upwards of eight employees who require salaries plus feeding and accommodation when on the road). To compete for a championship takes another million — a total of $3.5M.

Right now, that’s not in the cards. Hence, some barnstorming like the trip to Grand Bend this weekend.

Dixon worked with Don (The Snake) Prudhomme for close to 20 years and although he’s never raced north of the border before, he was with Prudhomme when the boss raced at Sanair back in the early 1990s. He said he can’t understand why the NHRA stopped coming to Canada.

“I was always impressed about how passionate Canadian fans are about drag racing and motorsports in general. They’ve got Formula One and IndyCar up there, so why not the NHRA?”

One of the most frightening moments in drag racing history came in 2015 at Gainesville, Fla., when Dixon’s dragster broke in two and took off just before crossing the finish line. He estimates he had just reached 300 miles an hour when everything came unstuck. Except for a sore knee, he emerged unscathed.

So I had to ask: What saved him? What has been the greatest safety improvement in drag racing? I was thinking the enclosed roll cage but his answer surprised me.

“Without a doubt it’s the HANS device,” he said, referring to the head restraint. “The HANS has saved more lives and prevented more injuries not only in drag racing but motor racing generally. If it’s good enough for Formula One and IndyCar, it’s good enough for me. If they change, if something comes along that they feel is better, I might take a look at it. But it will take a lot of convincing for me to change away from the HANS.”

Racing at Grand Bend starts Friday evening and then goes all day and into the evening on both Saturday and Sunday. In addition to Dixon and the other Top Fuel drivers, Nostalgia Nitro Funny cars, Nitro Harleys, Pro Mods, Top Sportsman, Top Dragsters, the Eastern Canadian Can-Am Stock/Super Stock series and a Jet truck will all be featured. For info, go to grandbendmotorplex.ca

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HOT LAPS:

• Kurt Busch will be back with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018. Just sayin’. True, the team didn’t pick up the option for a third year but that doesn’t mean they don’t want him back. They just want to renegotiate terms for a new contract. They might want to pay him less, or more. Maybe they want him to make more personal appearances. Whatever. They’ll straighten it out.

• The FIAhas a video out justifying its choice of the halo device over a screen or canopy for driver protection starting in 2018. Its arguments are compelling. However, if I could draw/sketch, I would show how the supermodified/sprint car roll cage would be better for allowing the driver to see straight ahead without his/her vision being obstructed as well as better protecting the driver from something getting into the cockpit from above. And it would look better. But the die is cast and we’ll just have to live with the halo — until it doesn’t work . . .

• The Super DIRTcar Series will be at Merrittville Speedway on Monday for the annual Bob St. Amand Memorial 100. Super DIRTcar Series champion Matt Sheppard will be there (he’s won five of the last eight DIRTcar races at the Thorold-area plant) as will Merrittville regular Mat Williamson of St. Catharines and Stewart Friesen of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Friesen, of course, is a shoe-in for the podium every time he races, whether it’s in the big-block modifieds that will be racing Monday, or sprint cars or, now, Camping World trucks.

• Friday night (that’s tonight, folks) at Ohsweken Speedway, Lucas Oil Night at the Races will feature the travelling Lucas Oil Empire State Super Sprints series taking on the local Kool Kidz-Corr/Pak 360 Sprints. Also on the program are the Strickland’s GMC Crate Sprint Cars, Middleport Mechanical Thunder Stocks, HRW Automotive Mini Stocks and Gale’s Auto Aftermarket Bombers. Race time is 7:30 with pit gates scheduled to open at 5:30 and spectator gates opening at 6. Admission for adults is $14, $10 for seniors (65+) and youths (13-17). Kids 7-12 get in for three bucks. Children 6 and under are free. Thanks to Clayton Johns for the info.

• Johns also advises that OSCAAR Racing will return to Sunset Speedway for the Velocity Weekend on Sept. 23-24. The OSCAAR Outlaw Super Late Models, OSCAAR Modifieds and OSCAAR Hot Rod Series will all be in attendance at the track’s year-end mega event. The OSCAAR Outlaw Super Late Models will support Sunset’s Fast Eddie Super Late Models for the Sunday, Sept. 24 race. In addition to the OSCAAR Racing at the event, the Velocity Weekend will also feature a 75-lap event for the Limited Late Models, a 50-lap Super Stock Feature, 35-lap Mini Stock, and full events for the Lucas Oil TQ Midgets and Ontario Pro Challenge Series.

For additional event information and for a full schedule of events for the Veloctiy Weekend, visit www.sunsetspeedway.ca . Keep up with OSCAAR Racing on social media as well by following their official Facebook page at facebook.com/OSCAARracing and on Twitter @OSCAARracing.

TV GUIDE

Saturday, 2 p.m., TSN1/4, NASCAR Xfinity Series, Watkins Glen

Sunday, 4:50 a.m., beIN, FIM Moto3, FIM Moto2, FIM MotoGP , Czechoslovakia

Sunday, `1 p.m., TSN1/3/4/5, NASCAR Pinty’s Series, Saskatoon (tape)

Sunday, 2:30 p.m., FOX Sports Racing, IMSA WeatherTech Championship, Road America

Sunday, 3 p.m., TSN1/3/4/5, NASCAR Monster Energy Cup, Watkins Glen

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