Hello everyone, my name is Luke Dixon. I like long walks on the beach and candlelit dinners......
Just kidding, I'm a born and bred gear head, who has dreamed of going to Bonneville my whole life. Born in Michigan and grew up going to Woodward and cruising telegraph in my Uncle's '64 Ford pickup.
I will be graduating from the University of Texas at Arlington this Saturday, with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. In the new year, I'll be working for Bell Helicopter as an Engineer in the Drive Systems department.
As for racing history, I raced shifter karts all through high school out at the track in Denton and at local autocross events. Bought my '95 Eclipse GST and got into drag racing, back to my roots. In 2009, took my car out to the TX Mile in Goliad and blew the head gasket. Best part about that trip was meeting Mike Reichen and getting bit by the land speed bug. 2010, we took my buddy's '92 AWD eagle talon to the mile. Once again, we had a string of bad luck and didn't get a clean pass. We sheared the teeth off a gear in the transmission. October of this year, we took the talon back out (I was a co-driver) and we both finally got a decent pass down the mile. He ran a best of 171.2 MPH and I ran a 170.3 MPH. On my run, we blew up a silicon coupler. Not having a replacement and not finding one locally, we packed up and called it a success. Currently we are doing some aero work to get ready for the October 2012 event. I saw Hooley's Stude there. Unfortunately, I was too busy to get over there to talk with them or get better pictures before they left.
With the new career, I'll be getting my car back on the road as a daily driver for the better fuel economy. Beats driving my trusty tow rig (a '83 Chevy K10) everyday. Then, I'll be buying another 2G DSM ('95-99 turbo FWD Eclipse/Talon) to build for the Salt and the TX Mile. I plan to run in PS first, moving to Altered, and finally Competition Coupe. I've been reading the rulebook religiously, taking notes, and lurking here for a while. I look forward to learning more here, meeting all of you, and hopefully seeing the salt for the first time, as a spectator, at Speedweek in 2012.
I attached pictures of my car (the red one) and my buddy's.