Lompoc, CA - November 28, 2007: This weekend’s ‘Henderson 400’ will be a ‘no-brainer’ for the Dixon Bros. in their #7177 Ford Ranger Pickup since they only need to start the race to clinch the 2007 Best in the Desert Silver State Series Points Championship in Class 7100. Scheduled for Nov. 30 - Dec. 2, the ‘Henderson 400’ is the final race of the season for Best in the Desert and the fact that starting the race assures the points title for the Dixon Bros. gives them the freedom to put the hammer down from the start and go all out for their second win of the season. Although this will be the first points championship in Class 7100 for the new Dixon Bros. Racing #7177 Ford Ranger, they also won back to back BitD Class 7300 Points Championships in 2003/2004, also in a Ford Ranger.

The ‘Henderson 400’, consists of multiple laps around an 80 mile course located in the El Dorado Valley, between Henderson and Boulder City, NV. Unlimited classes are scheduled to run four laps while limited and production classes will run three times around the course. This is the sixth year that Best in the Desert has returned to Henderson for the final race of the season and the course is a bit more forgiving than many of BitD’s other venues. Nonetheless, racers can expect plenty of silt and rocks in various locations around the course making visibility a problem and sudden disaster a possibility most of the time, particularly if we have a dry, windless course on raceday.

Given the fact that the Dixon Bros. Ford Ranger was only a collection of parts on their Lompoc, California shop floor a mere three weeks before the 2007 season opening ‘Parker 425’, the Dixons have managed to develop a successful race program on the fly this season.

They arrived at the ‘Parker 425’ the day of the race with a basically stock Ford Ranger that mainly had the mandated safety equipment installed. In spite of the fact that the Dixon Bros. had three hours of downtime during the race they managed to keep it moving for a 2nd place finish in Parker. Once back at the shop, Aaron added a 9” rear differential with disc brakes and a new C4 race transmission. He also built and installed some new front spindles and added 4” of travel to the front suspension. At the ‘Terrible’s Town 250’, in April, Aaron learned that there was not enough clearance for the increased suspension travel in front and lost two shocks on the driver’s side. The crew was able to take one of the shocks from the passenger side and install it on the driver’s side while limiting the travel on the front suspension so the remaining two shocks would survive. It was slow going after that but they were able to nurse it home to a 4th place finish, making it through one of the checkpoints with only a minute to spare. At the ‘Vegas to Reno’ the Dixon Bros. #7177 Ford Ranger led the race for the first 200 miles when fuel delivery and wiring problems brought them to a stop. Later in the race a front spindle had to be replaced on the course, in the early morning hours, when Aaron slid into a large rock. Again the Dixon Bros. were able to overcome the problems and posted a third place finish, which put them in the Class 7100 points lead. At the ‘Las Vegas 300’, in October, everything seemed to be sorted out. The fuel delivery problems were gone, the wiring was finally ironed out, the suspension was perfect and the truck won the race by 15 minutes over the second place truck, extending their lead for the Class 7100 points title to 79 points.

Brothers Aaron and Ian Dixon are not the least bit concerned about the condition of the course on raceday. With the Class 7100 points title already wrapped up they consider this an opportunity to finally get some test time in the truck, under race conditions, in preparation for the 2008 season opening ‘Parker 425’, Feb. 1-3 in Parker, Arizona.

- grt - To learn more about Dixon Bros. Racing visit our website at www.dixonbrosracing.com.