Scott Dixon
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Scott Dixon
Scott Dixon and wife Emma.
Nationality	New Zealand
Date of Birth	July 22, 1980 (1980-07-22) (age 28)
Place of Birth	Brisbane, Australia
2008 IRL IndyCar Series
Debut season	2003
Current team	Chip Ganassi Racing
Car No.	9
Starts	93
Wins	16
Poles	14
Best finish	1st in 2003
Previous series
2001-2002 1999-2000 1997-1998 1995-1996 1994	CART Champ Car Indy Lights Australian Formula Holden NZ Formula Ford NZ Formula Vee
Championship titles
2003 2000 1998 1996 1995 1994	IndyCar Series Indy Lights Australian Drivers' Championship NZ Formula Ford Class I NZ Formula Ford Class II NZ Formula Vee Class II
Awards
2008 2001	Indianapolis 500 winner CART Rookie of the Year

Scott Ronald Dixon (born July 22, 1980) is a New Zealand motor racing driver who won the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2008. He won the Indy Racing League (IRL) championship in 2003 on his first attempt, and at Kentucky in August 2008 equalled the record for six wins in a season.

Early years

Born in Brisbane, Australia, to New Zealand parents, Dixon moved to Auckland, New Zealand, at a very young age.

Dixon began racing karts before the age of 10. He caught the attention of the New Zealand public when he was granted a special dispensation to race a saloon car as a 13 year old. New Zealanders cannot obtain a road licence until turning 15 and a half, at the earliest.

Dixon was entered in a one-make series featuring the Nissan Sentra. Dixon rolled the car onto its roof, and caught national attention when he struggled from the upturned car with tears streaming down his face, and a pillow strapped to his bottom so he could see over the steering wheel. Dixon went on to win in every series he competed in.

1994–1998

In 1994 he won the New Zealand Formula Vee championship, 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. 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 Mauricio Gugelmin. Dixon led his first race in Mexico for 14 laps. Just two races later he won at Nazareth Speedway. 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 was incorrect (Jimmy Davies won the 100 mile AAA Championship race at Del Mar, California on November 6, 1949 — aged 20 years, 2 months, 29 days). 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.

Indy Racing League

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.^[1] Although it was his first year in the IRL, and he won the championship, Dixon was not rookie of the year.

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

Dixon did not succesfully defend his title. The Toyota engine had lost its edge. He did, however, have the opportunity to stake his claim for a drive in Formula One, when he tested for the Williams-BMW. His 2003 championship also earned him the right to represent the IRL in the 2004 International Race of Champions where he finished 10th.

2005

The 2005 season was even worse for Dixon with the Toyota engine not matching competitors' engines. 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 slamming 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

Toyota later withdrew its IRL involvement for the 2006 season. 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 ^[2], and finishing just 15 points behind Sam Hornish Jr. and Wheldon.

2007

Practicing for the 2007 Indianapolis 500

Dixon was the runner-up in the 2007 IndyCar Series season, 13 points behind Dario Franchitti, after running out of fuel while leading on the final lap of the final race. 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 July 22, to become the third driver in history to win three IRL races in a row, joining Dan Wheldon and Kenny Bräck.

On August 5, 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 Dario Franchitti's car airborne. Dixon's crew repaired his car sufficiently to run two more laps, earning him valuable points in his battle with Franchitti for the driver's championship despite not finishing the race. This ended a streak of 28 consecutive races — since retiring at the Chicagoland Speedway event in September 2005 — in which Dixon did not retire. 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,^[3] giving Franchitti the race win and the championship.

2008

Dixon won his first Indianapolis 500 from the pole and gave 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. At Kentucky he passed the 2000 laps-led tally.

Formula One

Dixon performed a secret test with Prost Grand Prix junior Formula 3000 team.

It was BMW who gave Dixon the chance to realize his ambition and drive a Formula One car, even while he raced with Toyota engines in the CART series. At the Paul Ricard Circuit in France, Dixon drove a Williams, and made a respectable showing during a one-day test. His times were not far off those of regular driver Ralf Schumacher.

However, a two day test six weeks later in Barcelona was not a success, with Dixon failing to land a spot with the team. Although Dixon maintains his desire to break into Formula One, as strong as ever, few drivers his age are brought to F1 as rookies.

A1GP

After attending one race meeting as an observer, Dixon tested New Zealand's A1 Grand Prix car during the sixth round of the series in Dubai. It is reported that Dixon was becoming familiar with the car, before racing it during the 2006 A1GP rounds in the USA and Mexico, but he could not secure a release from Ganassi.

Sports cars

Dixon drove in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 24 Hours of Daytona races for Ganassi Racing. He won the 2006 race with teammates Dan Wheldon and Casey Mears, logging the most laps in their Lexus powered Riley.

Career results

American Open-Wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2003	Ganassi	HMS 1	PHX Ret	MOT Ret	INDY Ret	TXS 6	PPIR 1	RIR 1	KAN 6	NSH 2	MIS 5	STL Ret	KTY 2	NZR Ret	CHI 2	FON 2	TX2 2				1st	507
2004	Ganassi	HMS Ret	PHX 2	MOT 5	INDY 8	TXS Ret	RIR 8	KAN 12	NSH 8	MIL Wth	MIS 7	KTY 13	PPIR Ret	NZR 9	CHI 7	FON 8	TX2 6				10th	355
2005	Ganassi	HMS Ret	PHX 12	STP 6	MOT Ret	INDY Ret	TXS 11	RIR Ret	KAN 18	NSH 6	MIL 13	MIS Ret	KTY Ret	PPIR 16	SNM 7	CHI Ret	WGL 1	FON 10			13th	321
2006	Ganassi	HMS 5	STP 2	FON 9	INDY 6	WGL 1	TXS 2	RIR 11	KAN 4	NSH 1	MIL 10	MIS 16	KTY 2	SNM 4	CHI 2						4th	460
2007	Ganassi	HMS 2	STP 2	MOT 4	KAN 4	INDY 2	MIL 4	TXS 12	IOW 10	RIR 2	WGL 1	NSH 1	MDO 1	MIS Ret	KTY 2	SNM 1	DET Ret	CHI 2			2nd	624
2008	Ganassi	HMS 1	STP Ret	MOT1 3	LBH1 DNP	KAN 3	INDY 1	MIL 2	TXS 1	IOW 4	RIR 3	WGL 11	NSH 1	MDO 3	EDM 1	KTY 1	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	1st*	558*

* 2008 season in progress

¹ 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.

Indy 500 results

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Scott Dixon

• Scott Dixon official website
• Scott Dixon Biography in US
• IRL Profile: Scott Dixon
• 2008 Stats