In drag racing, drivers are like the quarterbacks in football, when they win, they get all the credit, and when they lose, well, you know. But like a quarterback the driver can’t do it alone, and such was the case with Larry Dixon Sr., who drove the famed Howard Cams Rattler. While Larry’s name is the one generally associated with the car, it was the guys behind the scenes, the ones in the trenches who made this one of the most feared cars of its time. Those guys were Jerry Johansen who built and maintained the engine (when he wasn’t busy running Howard Racing Cams after his dad, Howard, retired), Danny Porche, who actually owned the car, and Ed Osepian who ran his own business during the day and worked on the car at night. And then there was Larry, the guy they hired to drive the car, the one who got most of the glory when the “Rattler” won a race, and it won a lot of races. In the early days of drag racing, there were only a few national events and the teams had to fill their schedules with either match races or by running at some of the big, independent events. In those days (the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s), one of the biggest races was the Hot Rod Magazine Championship Drag Race. In 1969 the event was held at Riverside International Raceway and it attracted a huge field of cars. When all of the smoke had died down (and in those days there was a lot of smoke), the two survivors in the Top Fuel field were Steve Carbone and Larry Dixon. Larry, driving the “Rattler,” had already upset Gerry “The Hunter” Glenn, Jack McCloud, Jeep Hampshire and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, while Carbone had been running the best times of the weekend and appeared to be a prohibitive favorite going into the final. In fact, his car was so strong that when he got off the starting line first, he threw his one hand in the air and made the “V” for victory sign with his fingers, only to have the rear-end break, the car slow and Dixon sail by for the win. So much for victory, huh? Hot Rod Magazine always gave the winner of the event a cover shot on the magazine, and by the time the photo op occurred, the team had dug the full nose piece out, put it on the car and posed for the classic shot (Hot Rod Magazine, August 1969). A new Howard Cams Rattler would appear at Pomona in 1970 and it would take the Winternationals’ title in another upset, this time over Tony Nancy, who kept both hands on the wheel but still couldn’t stop Larry Dixon and the rest of this great team. – Bob Frey