Tue, 10 Oct 2000, 04:40 PM Schumacher and Dixon Updates

By Mickey Schultz

The NHRA history book will show that Gary Scelzi won Top Fuel, Ron Capps took his first victory of the season in Funny Car, Jeg Coughlin, Jr. was victorious in Pro Stock and clinched the 2000 NHRA Winston Pro Stock Championship and Mike Coughlin turned back all challengers in Pro Stock Truck during the AutoZone Nationals presented by Pennzoil at Memphis Motorsports Park. What the record book cannot show is the destruction of equipment and the physical and emotional toll it took on Top Fuel drivers Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon and their teams.

On Saturday, during the final qualifying session for Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher inched his Army-backed dragster into the staging beams against the Team Winston machine of Gary Scelzi. At the green, both cars launched, then a few seconds later Tony Schumacher's racing world was upside down, literally, as Schumacher, who had already set a track record at 4.552 seconds earlier in the day, had something go wrong, terribly wrong!

As he neared the top end of the quarter-mile, the rear wing on Schumacher's Army dragster seemingly pulled apart from the chassis and wing struts and then sent the reigning Winston Top Fuel champ on a ride that had everyone fearing for his life. The car made a sharp move to the right, hit the wall and from its momentum launched itself over the retaining barrier. The car immediately began shedding itself of parts and pieces, but fortunately the driver's capsule broke away and acted like a cocoon around the tumbling Schumacher, coming to rest about five feet from a large oak tree.

The NHRA Safety Safari, the best in the business, was on the scene immediately. While an anxious crowd, peers and love ones looked toward the accident site, NHRA medical personnel took all the necessary precautions extricating Schumacher from the driver's compartment. It seemed like an eternity before Schumacher was placed in a waiting helicopter and airlifted to Regional Medical Center in Memphis for further evaluation and treatment.

Late Saturday night it was determined that Schumacher had broken his right ankle and the fibula, the long, thin, outer bone between the knee and ankle, in his left leg. He was held overnight for observation and released on Sunday. After a brief stop at the track, Schumacher was taken to Indianapolis to meet with Dr. Timothy Weber of Orthopedics Indianapolis, headed by renowned orthopedic surgeon Terry Trammell.

On Monday, after an extensive evaluation, including another CAT scan and additional X-rays, Dr. Weber performed surgery on Schumacher. According to team spokesperson Mike DeLille, it was determined that his right ankle was not as bad as originally thought - - that is, he only had a small bone chip not a broken bone. The breaks to the left fibula were repaired and are being held together with screws and a plate. Two stainless steel screws hold the repaired bone to the tibia, the inner and thicker of the two bones in the lower leg. This is done to hold the repaired area stable. These screws will be removed in four to six months.

As of now, DeLille indicates that Schumacher has not seen the video of the incident, but, as they were waiting to see the doctor on Monday, Schumacher asked for details of the accident. The good news today is that Schumacher is mending to race another day. Recovery time is undetermined at this time and that will be determined between doctor and patient. What is known is that Schumacher Racing will field an Army Top Fuel Dragster at Dallas. What is not known at this time is who will drive that car.

According to an NHRA official, Schumacher's car and safety equipment have been impounded by the NHRA Tech Department, as is standard practice in such an incident. They will review every piece at their disposal in hopes of finding the cause of Schumacher's crash. Such results and findings could prevent a reoccurrence of this type of incident in the future. As rare as one serious crash is at an event, the AutoZone Nationals presented by Pennzoil stopped peoples' hearts a second time in the finals of Top Fuel on Sunday. Larry Dixon, in the Don Prudhomme-owned, Miller Lite-sponsored dragster had defeated David Grubnic, Joe Amato and Doug Kalitta en route to a final round match up with current Winston Top Fuel point leader Gary Scelzi.

Recapping the final round, at the green light Dixon's Miller Lite dragster got away first. Shortly thereafter, the Team Winston Dragster of Scelzi went up in tire smoke and Dixon began an uncontested march toward the finish line. Then at about the 1000-foot mark, Dixon's machine flexed in the middle and began a wild, tumbling ride down the track coming to stop far pass the finish line. Dixon's teammate Ron Capps, who had just won the Funny Car final in his U.S. Tobacco Camaro, had this account of the horrific end to Dixon's day.

"I'm doing an interview and I turn around and see Larry's car perpendicular, standing straight up, with body panels flying," said Capps. "I jumped on one of the safety trucks, so I was one of the first ones there. Larry was unconscious when I got to him and I was yelling at him to wake up. That was rough because his wife Ali was right there. I began getting his stuff (safety equipment) off and he finally woke up. That helped things out. It doesn't matter how good a win is… this is a guy you know and good friends with and you're seeing him helpless… it brings everything into perspective." Like Schumacher, they transported Dixon to Regional Medical Center in Memphis for further evaluation and treatment. A broken ankle and assorted bumps and bruises were the major extent of Dixon's injuries. He is currently in Indianapolis and will be further evaluated today at Orthopedics Indianapolis. Surgery for Dixon is a distinct possibility.

As to Dallas, the team is currently readying two new cars for Dallas. According to team spokesperson Skip Allum, Dixon very much wants to drive at Dallas but a final decision will not be made until after meeting with the orthopedic staff at Orthopedics Indianapolis.

A side note to the crash is that the broadcast of the AutoZone Nationals on Speedvision indicated a problem with the chassis of Dixon's Miller Lite Dragster prior to meeting Scelzi in the final round. With video showing the team working on the chassis, commentator Steve Evans added this voice over, "There is a problem in the Larry Dixon, Don Prudhomme camp. The Top Fuel dragster chassis has bent somehow. Snake thinks it was bouncing through the shut down area. It's a little bit bumpy down there and possible just kind of got off kilter. They're using blocks and a sledge hammer and cable come-alongs and everything they can find to try and make the top rail match the bottom rail. Even if it isn't quite right the car will still be safe enough to run but they'd like to give Dixon every advantage that they possible can."

Speedvision co-host Mike Dunn, in viewing the replays of the incident, indicated that the breaking of the chassis appeared to him to be at a different point than the team was seen working on in the video we previously discussed. After the accident, in his closing remarks, Evans further said, "… this does not appear to be related to the chassis repair we talked about earlier though…"

This lends some credence to the possibility that something else caused the problem. According to Allum, the builder of the chassis has sent an investigator to the Prudhomme shop to sort through the remains to see if a cause can be pinpointed. We will keep you posted on that investigation if, and when, any facts become available.

One name that is a constant with these two accidents is the name of Gary Scelzi. By coincidence, it was Scelzi, in the Team Winston Dragster, that was in the other lane opposite Schumacher and Dixon.

"With Schumacher, I never saw a thing. My throttle hung open and I was trying to pull it back. I couldn't get it back. I hit the fuel shut off and blew the supercharger to stop," said Scelzi. "When I stopped the car, I got out and I saw the Safety Safari coming down the race track in a hurry. I knew I blew the supercharger and thought that maybe I was on fire. I had no idea that Tony hadn't gone by me. Then I saw his fuel tank by the back of my car on fire and saw the pieces. Everybody was running on the other side of the guard rail and I just got sick to my stomach. I started to run over to the wall. When I got over to the wall and looked and saw it, I just had to turn around. I just didn't want to see any more. Just not something I cared to see. I ran over there thinking maybe I could help and then when I got there, there was nothing I could do. I didn't like what I saw.

"I saw everything with Larry. I went up in smoke which I didn't expect. I grabbed the brake. I got on and off the throttle twice and then I saw Larry's car going away. I was just going to shut off. Then the next thing I know his car bowed up in the middle and the pieces were flying. I grabbed the brake again and hit the fuel shut off. I only got one fuel shut off. Pieces were coming down. I was trying to dodge pieces. You're not suppose to push the clutch in after you hit the gas because that let's all the fingers (to the clutch) come back and if you do it that breaks all the fingers. I did it. I did everything out of sequence to stop the car. I finally stopped. Again, I didn't want to see. I just got out and sat on the wall.

"Basically Larry Dixon won the race. We were done. It was over. It was a tainted win," added Scelzi. Ron Capps sums it all up: "We've got the fastest motorsport there is in the world but I believe it is the safest. There aren't too many other sports that can put a guy through at 300 miles per hour what both Larry and Tony went through and have them live through it. So hats off to everybody in the industry. I mean really every bit of industry that we have we have from the tires Goodyear makes to the spark plugs Champion makes. Everything the people do that make up our industry is top notch."

As a final note, if any further information is released on the medical condition of either Tony Schumacher or Larry Dixon, it will be posted by FastNews Network on Summit Racing Drag Race Central.