Scott Dixon

Scott Ronald Dixon, MNZM (born 22 July 1980) is a New Zealand motor racer who became the most successful all-time driver in the Indy Racing League (IRL) championship in the United States when he won the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio in August 2009. This took his total to 21 wins.^[1] Competing for Chip Ganassi Racing since joining IndyCar, Dixon has won the championship twice, 2003 and 2008, and he won the 92nd Indianapolis 500 in 2008 from pole position.^[2]

At Kentucky in August that year he equalled the record for six wins in a season. Known as a consistent race finisher, Dixon has twice in his IndyCar career set the record for finishing the highest number of consecutive races, 28, at Watkins Glen in 2005, and again at Mid-Ohio in 2007 ^[3] He has been on the podium 48 times from the 90 races he has completed, and his ratio of wins to career starts is the best of alltime regular drivers in the IRL.

Among notable awards won by Dixon are the Jim Clark Trophy (1999, 2001, 2004) which perpetuates the name of the late Formula One world champion Jim Clark, and the Bruce McLaren Trophy (2003, 2008) which is awarded annually by the British Racing Drivers' Club. It perpetuates the name of the late Bruce McLaren, a fellow New Zealander, whose name lives on in the name of the McLaren Racing Team.

Early years

Dixon was born in Brisbane, Australia, to New Zealand parents Ron and Glenys Dixon who were both dirt race car drivers.^[4] The family returned to Auckland in New Zealand when Dixon was very young. He began racing karts as a seven year old,^[5] and caught the attention of the New Zealand public when granted a special dispensation to obtain a competition licence to race a saloon car as a 13-year-old.^[6] New Zealanders cannot obtain a road licence until turning 16 years old.

Dixon was competing at Pukekohe Park Raceway in a one-make series featuring the Nissan Sentra when he rolled the car onto its roof. He caught national attention when TV showed him struggling from the upturned car with a cushion strapped to his back to enable him to reach the pedals, and wiping a tear from his eye.^[7] Dixon went on to win in every series he competed in.

1994–1998

In 1994 he won the New Zealand Formula Vee championship,^[8] before taking the Formula Ford Class 2 series in 1995 with 13 wins from 14 races, and then the full New Zealand Formula Ford championship the next year.

In 1997 Dixon decided to race in Australia. With no money to carry on racing, Rotorua businessman Christopher Wingate provided Dixon and his mentor, Kiwi racing hero Kenny Smith, with both money and airfares between New Zealand and Australia to ensure Dixon's career moved ahead. In 1997 Dixon won Rookie of the Year and third overall in the Australian Formula Holden series driving the Ralt Australia prepared Reynard. This resulted in him being offered a drive with top team SH Racing. As the budgets were going to exceed $250,000, Wingate suggested a company be formed to fund Dixon's career. That company was called Scott Dixon Motorsport (SDMS), funded by shareholders who over the next two years invested more than $1m in Dixon. This allowed him to pursue his career without worrying about money. In 1998 Dixon won the Formula Holden series outright. That win brought offers to race in the Australian V8 Supercar series but that was not where he wanted to make his mark, so arrangements were made for him to go to the USA to test in the Indy Lights series.

1999–2000

With the backing of Scott Dixon Motorsport investors, Dixon moved to the United States in 1999. After a test in Sebring where Dixon broke the track record on his eighth lap, he was signed to Johansson Motorsports Indy Lights team, beginning a long management association with the team's owner, former Ferrari and McLaren Formula One driver Stefan Johansson. He set a lap record when taking pole position for the Chicago oval race which he won. He was consistently fast throughout the year but had five DNFs, which limited him to fifth place in the series.

In 2000 Dixon remained in Indy Lights, moving to the PacWest team. He took the championship in resounding fashion, scoring six wins and seven podium finishes.

CART

2001

PacWest Racing graduated Dixon to its full CART team in 2001. Dixon immediately out-paced his team-mate, the former Formula One driver Maurício Gugelmin. Dixon led his first race in Mexico for 14 laps. Just two races later he won at Nazareth Speedway – his first oval race in the senior CART series. At the age of 20 years, 9 months and 14 days it was widely reported that he became the youngest winner of a major U.S. open-wheel race, but this achievement already belonged to Jimmy Davies who was six months younger when winning the 100-mile (160 km) AAA Championship race at Del Mar, California in 1949. Dixon scored championship points in 11 of 20 starts, and led the FedEx Champ Car Series in laps completed with 2,521 out of a possible 2,610. He won the Jim Trueman Trophy for Rookie of the Year and was eighth in the championship.

2002

Dixon remained with PacWest, owned by Bruce McCaw of McCaw Cellular, for 2002 but it soon became clear the team was woefully short of cash due to the dot com crash. When it eventually collapsed, Toyota arranged an introduction to Target Chip Ganassi Racing which added a third car to its squad to accommodate Dixon. It was his first experience of a true top-level team, which had the then top-level engine supplier, Toyota. Dixon posted 12 top ten finishes, including a second place at Denver.

IndyCar Series

2003

Chip Ganassi joined CART teams Penske and Andretti-Green Racing in 2003 to switch to the all-oval Indy Racing League. Dixon won the season opener at Homestead in Florida. A tangle with Tony Kanaan in Japan left Dixon with a shattered hand, but he recovered to take two more victories and win the championship at his first try. Along the way he also set a record with 343 consecutive laps led, the first time a driver had led consecutive laps in three successive races. At Pikes Peak he led the last 84 laps to win, then led every lap of the next event at Richmond, and at the next event, at Kansas, led the first 53 laps.^[9] Although it was his first year in the IRL, and he won the championship, Dixon was not rookie of the year due to his ChampCar experience.

The year ended on a tragic note for Dixon. Ganassi had recruited Tony Renna as his team-mate. The young American and Dixon were already close friends. But at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, during Renna's first practice session for the team, he spun across the track and became airborne in the third turn. Renna's car hit a post at high speed and was demolished, the cockpit splitting on impact. Renna was killed instantly of blunt force trauma to the head and chest.

2004 and 2005 seasons

The Toyota engine had lost its edge and Dixon did not successfully defend his title. In the 32 races held during these two years, Dixon made the podium only twice, with a second and a solitary win. He unsuccessfully tested for the WilliamsF1 team, and finished 10th when representing the IRL in the 2004 International Race of Champions. In 2005 Dixon and his Ganassi team-mates, Ryan Briscoe and Darren Manning, were struggling, and they wrote off or seriously damaged 28 cars in a seemingly never ending series of crashes. Manning was fired, and Australian Briscoe was lucky to escape with his life when his car became airborne and disintegrated after touching another car and slammed into the outside retaining wall of Chicagoland Speedway's third turn. Amid rumours Dixon could also be sacked, the Kiwi bounced back to score his and the team's first win since 2003, the Indy Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International. Soon after, Dixon re-signed for a further two seasons with Ganassi.

2006

Ganassi moved to Honda engines for the 2006 season, when Dixon was partnered with Englishman Dan Wheldon, the 2005 Indianapolis 500 winner and IRL series champion. Before the IRL season even started, they successfully combined as a one-car team (with Casey Mears) to win the 24 Hours of Daytona. Dixon repeated his 2005 Indy Grand Prix win at Watkins Glen, and became the first man ever to win an IRL race run in wet conditions. At Nashville Superspeedway, he won the Gibson Guitar Trophy by a couple of car lengths over his team mate Wheldon. He finished fourth in the standings, completing a series-high 2,504 of a possible 2,510 laps and being the only driver to finish every race,^[9] and finishing just 15 points behind Sam Hornish Jr. and Wheldon.

2007

Dixon was runner-up in the 2007 IndyCar Series season, 13 points behind Dario Franchitti. During the last event at Chicagoland, battling Franchitti for the win and the championship, Dixon was leading Franchitti on the last lap when he ran out of fuel,^[10] giving Franchitti the race win and the championship. Earlier he had achieved his fourth win of the year at Infineon Raceway, and his third consecutive Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix. He had four second place finishes, including in the rain shortened Indianapolis 500, and finished in the top five in 10 races this season. He dominated the rain-delayed Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, his second consecutive win in the event, and second consecutive win of the season. He won the next race too, the Honda 200 on 22 July, to become the third driver in history to win three IRL races in a row, joining Dan Wheldon and Kenny Bräck.

On 5 August, Dixon was attempting to win a fourth straight race at the Firestone Indy 400 when he was involved in a six-car accident that sent Franchitti's car airborne. Dixon's crew repaired his car sufficiently to run two more laps, earning him valuable points but this ended a streak of 28 consecutive races — since retiring at the Chicagoland Speedway event in September 2005 — in which Dixon did not retire.

2008

This was a highly successful season for Dixon who won the series championship for the second time, and won his first Indianapolis 500, from the pole, to give car owner Chip Ganassi his second win in the race. He also won this season at Homestead, Texas, Nashville, Edmonton and Kentucky, a record equalling six wins for a season in the series. In the final points scoring race of the series, at Chicagoland Speedway, Dixon needed to finish no worse than eighth if Castroneves won the race. He placed second to Castroneves in a tight photo finish. Speaking to the media later he said it had been an amazing, unforgettable year. "Getting married, winning the 500, winning a championship in one year – not too many people can probably say they've done that." ^[11] Motorsport.com took it further, saying that Dixon "can now say he's the 'best of the best' in American open-wheel racing, especially after this year's unification with Champ Car".^[12]

At Kentucky he took his career laps-led tally to 2,149, becoming the fifth driver in the series to lead for more than 2000 laps.^[13] Also at Kentucky, Dixon replaced Alex Zanardi as the winningest IndyCar driver for Chip Ganassi (16th victory), and his pole position achieved on 30 August for the Detroit Indy Grand Prix gave him seven for the year, and took him to second all-time leading pole-setter with 15.^[14] Also, he led 869 laps during the year, an all-time record for a single season. Just before the Chicagoland event, it was announced that teammate Wheldon would be moving to Panther Racing ^[15] in 2009 and Dixon's new partner would be Franchitti who would return from NASCAR.^[16]

For recording the IndyCar Series championship/Indy500 double this year, Dixon was selected 2008 New Zealand Sportsman Of The Year at the Halberg Awards held in February 2009.^[17]

Dixon was one of five New Zealand motor sports personalities honoured in a special issue of New Zealand Post stamps. Others featured were: Denny Hulme, 1967 Formula One World Champion ; Bruce McLaren, race-car designer, driver, engineer and inventor whose name lives on in Team McLaren; Ivan Mauger, six time winner of the Speedway World Championship and voted greatest speedway rider of the 20th Century; and Hugh Anderson, four time Grand Prix motorcycle racing World champion.^[18]

2009

In a disastrous start to the season, Dixon finished sixteenth and fifteenth in the first two races, at St. Pete and Long Beach. From then on he was back in business with eight podiums, winning at Kansas, Milwaukee, Richmond, Mid-Ohio and Motegi, as well as a second at Chicago and thirds at Texas, Watkins Glen, and Edmonton. He led the most laps (73) in the Indy 500 but struggled home to finish sixth. His dominant win at Mid-Ohio, by 29.7 seconds, was his 20th win in the IRL (21st of his career), making him the league's most successful driver of all time.

There was considerable rivalry between him and his friend and new partner in the team, Dario Franchitti, who had returned to the IRL from NASCAR. Franchitti scored four wins, two seconds and two thirds, and leading into the last race of the season at Homestead he was only five points behind Dixon. Complicating the issue was that Penske's Ryan Briscoe was only a further three points back, so whichever of the three drivers could win at Homestead would be Series Champion. Dixon started outside Franchitti on the front row and ran first and second with Briscoe for most of the race. However the two front-runners were forced to pit for fuel with only several laps remaining and the race win, along with the Championship, went to Dario Franchitti on a fuel saving strategy. Dixon claimed third in the race and second in the Championship by one point over Briscoe.

Formula One

BMW gave Dixon a test drive in a Formula One car even while he raced with Toyota engines in the CART series. At the Paul Ricard Circuit in France, he drove a Williams and recorded respectable times during a one-day test, being not far off those of regular driver Ralf Schumacher. A two-day test six weeks later in Barcelona did not lead to a spot with the team.

Career results

Sports Cars

Complete American Le Mans Series results

Rolex Sports Car Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

• Season in progress

American open–wheel racing results

(key)

CART

IndyCar

* Season still in progress.

¹ Races run on same day

² Non-points paying, exhibition race

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Personal life

Dixon married Emma Davies, a former Welsh and British 800m champion, in February 2008.^[19] Shortly after their first wedding anniversary it was announced that he and his wife were expecting their first child,^[20] – a daughter, Poppy Davies Dixon, was born on 5 July 2009, a few hours after the end of Race 9 of the IndyCar Series at Watkins Glen.^[21] A second daughter named Tilly was born 10 Sept 2011, several weeks premature.

References

External links

• Scott Dixon official website
• IndyCar Driver Page
• Scott Dixon Biography in US
• IRL Profile: Scott Dixon
• 2008 Stats
• An article about Graham Chronofighter Oversize Scott Dixon watch
• The Greatest 33
• The Greatest 33 Profile