Ben's Quarter Mile Pro-File
John Dixon
by Ben De la Vega

  You know it's going to be interesting when you open your email and the greeting is "G'day Mate"!  And I was not dissapointed. 

  This month's Pro-File goes to John Dixon who was born and raised in the King Country region of New Zealand but has spent the last 20 years living and working in Prudhoe Bay or "Sagavanirktok" Alaska.  (Go ahead, I'll wait.)  The North Alaskan Bay in itself is quite interesting in that there is a regular population of around 2,200 residents but around 3,000 oil field workers at any given time and John is one of those workers.

  So, when John isn't busy freezing his butt off on the northern slopes of the Alaskan wilderness he enjoys drag racing at the Alaska Raceway Park (IHRA) in Palmer or about 40 minutes outside of Anchorage where John started racing in the mid 90's, in his "68 Chevelle.  After a while he switched to a full tube framed chassied Vega that ran in the high 7's.  

  As you will see by the pictures he submitted, his new "beast" is the most radical.  It is a 1948 Fiat Topolino Altered that runs a supercharged alcohol burning small block Chevy with a powerglide. Now get this, John runs in the tracks Pro Nostalgia class and aside from the tech rules, the class in itself has no rules aside from no electronics or air shifters.  It is a 7.60 heads up class in which you can break out and still win as long as you finish the race in your own lane!  You heard me, no DQ's for coloring outside of the lines, how cool is that?

  John's goal is to come down to the lower 48 and do some drag racing, especially at Bakersfield and then go back home to New Zealand to show them what he has learned since he's been away.  John loves ice cream and it's hard for him to choose a favorite, but he said it would probably be kiwi.  Why is that?

Nostalgia Drag World - by Ben de la Vega Editor at Large; photos courtesy of John Dixon