Dixon, Scott

Scott was born into a family of New Zealanders Ron and Glenis Dixon (both at one time participated in regional races on the earthen track). Shortly after this event, the family moved to Auckland .

In February 2008, Dixon married Emma Davis (former Wales and UK champion in the 800 meter race). ^[2] Now the couple has two children: the daughters of Poppy (born in 2009) and Tilly (born in 2011).

early years

He began his career in karting at the age of 7 years ^[3] , where he was able to achieve such results that by a special decision of the New Zealand Automobile Federation he received rights at the age of 13 ^{[4] [5]} .

One of the turning points in his career was his participation in the race at the Pukekohe Park Raceway in the monoseries Nissan Sentra . The episode in which Dixon, after his own mistake, tried to return to the race by turning over his own car lying on the roof, was widely known. The leaders of the corresponding national program drew attention to a guy with a pillow tied to his back (it was easier to get to the pedals this way), struggling with an upturned car ^[6] .

In 1994, Scott wins the championship of the New Zealand Formula V ^[7] and becomes the vice champion in the local Formula Ford championship (Class 2). In 1995, he wins this championship with 13 victories in 14 races. In 1996, he transferred to class 1 of this championship and also won it. In 1997, with the sponsorship of Christopher Wingate, the New Zealander, along with his mentor Kenny Smith, moved to Australia to participate in the local Formula Holden Championship. In his debut year, Dixon won the rookie of the year title and finished third in the overall standings of the series, speaking for the Ralt Australia team on the Reynard chassis. This result allowed Scott to be interested in one of the favorites of the series, the SH Racing team, in his services.

At the same time, the amount of investment in a New Zealander’s career exceeded $ 250,000. Wingate set up Scott Dixon Motorsport (SDMS) to maintain the necessary level of financing for a New Zealander’s career over the next years. In 1998, Scott wins the Formula Holden Championship. For the 1999 season, he receives offers from the teams of the V8 Supercars series , but prefers to go to North America - to the Indy Lights series .

1999-2002

With SDMS funds, Scott moved to the USA in 1999 and agreed on tests at Indy Lights . During the pre-season test session in Sebring, he is already on the 8th lap sets a new track record. As a result, it is possible to sign a contract with one of last year’s leaders in the series - the Johansson Motorsports team . Dixon was fast all season; in Chicago, he even managed to win the race from the pole position, but 5 gatherings during that season drove him only to fifth place in the overall standings, 42 points behind the series champion of that season, Oriol Servia from Spain .

In 2000, Scott secures the success of last year. Having joined the PacWest Lights team, he wins 6 out of 12 races of the season and confidently wins the championship. After a successful season at Indy Lights, PacWest Racing transferred Dickson to her team in the main championship - in the CART series. The New Zealander’s partner was an experienced pilot from Brazil , thirty- eight -year-old Mauricio Guzhelmin .

Scott was already in the lead in his first race - in the Mexican Fundidora Park . Two races later - at the first official start on the oval-type track - in Pennsylvania at the Nazareth Speedway - the New Zealander wins his first victory at the series stage. At that moment, Scott was 20 years old, 9 months and 14 days old - such young pilots have not won at the Champkar championship stages since 1949, when the AAA championship race in California del Mare . The New Zealander in that championship spent all 20 races and got into points 11 times in them. Dickson drove 2,521 laps in all races of the season out of 2,610 possible. At the end of the season, he was awarded the Jim Truman prize as the best newcomer to the series. The debut championship ended in 8th position.

The next year, Scott remains in PacWest, but the team from the very beginning of the season experienced financial problems and after the stage in Motegi relieved its pilots of contractual obligations. However, the career of the New Zealander in the series did not end there - with the support of Toyota, he transferred to Target Chip Ganassi Racing , where a third car was specially set up for him. By the end of the year, Scott will finish 10 times in Top10 (the best result is second place at the Denver stage), finishing the championship on 13th line.

2003-05. Early years at IRL IndyCar

Before the start of the 2003 season, Chip Ganassi supported Penske and Andretti-Green Racing , closing the team in the CART series and fully concentrating on participating in the Indy Racing League . One of the pilots who were given the opportunity to drive was Scott.

Dixon wins the start of the 2003 Homestad season, followed by a series of unsuccessful results - including an accident at Motegi , where the New Zealander seriously injures his arm. In the future, everything straightens out - Scott even sets a series record for the number of consecutive leadership circles - starting 83 laps before the finish at the Pikes Peak stage, he proceeded the entire stage in Richmond and only after the 54th lap in Kansas was removed from the first line to race report ^[8] .

That season, the New Zealander finishes 9 times in Top5 and snatches the championship title in the last race. Since Dixon had CART racing experience , this did not automatically mean the title of the best newcomer to the series of that year.

In the offseason, Scott and the whole team suffered a heavy loss - in a crash on tests in Indianapolis , a close friend of the New Zealander - American Tony Renna crashed (Chip signed a contract with him as the main pilot for the 2004 season).

In 2004-2005, the team was pursued by endless problems with technology. In parallel, the power unit supplied by Toyota obviously began to lose to competitors. Scott and his then partners Darren Manning and Ryan Briscoe were constantly in various accidents. However, by the end of the 2005 season, things began to improve gradually - Dixon, who at that time was on the verge of being fired from the team, was able to win his first victory in 39 starts at Watkins Glen and, in the end, convinced Ganassi to renew his contract with him.

2006-08. Dixon and Weldon

In 2006, much has changed in the team - Chip lured Dan Weldon from competitors from AGR, and the series itself in fact switched to a mono engine - manufactured by Honda .

Stability returned to the New Zealander - for the whole season he only did not get into the Top10 twice at the finish line and was able to win two victories at once (moreover, one of the victories was won in Walkins Glen - the first rain race in the history of the series). Before the last race of the season, Scott, along with the same Weldon, Hornish and Castronevez , was listed in the contenders for the title, but only formally - the competitors had to perform extremely unsuccessfully so that he could win the title. As a result, Dixon finished second in that race in Chicago, which allowed him to finish the championship in 4th place. The race was won by his teammate, but that didn't help him either - thanks to third place, Sam Hornish won the title. In addition, that year, Scott completes 2,504 of 2,510 laps during the races of the season and becomes the only pilot to finish at each stage ^[8] .

In 2007, for the New Zealander, there were no longer any rivals in his team - Weldon was an order of magnitude more unstable, and Dixon would finish the race after the race in Top5, although he could not win. Finally in Walkins Glen he finally wins his first victory (finishing third for the third year in a row on the New York circuit), after which he also wins races in Nashville and Mid-Ohio. The series was interrupted in Michigan - the New Zealander falls into a massive blockage provoked by Weldon and Franchitti . That gathering interrupts a series of 28 consecutive finishes for the New Zealander.

As a result, before the last stage, the New Zealander is again one of the contenders for the championship title, but this time he just needs to get ahead of the only competitor in the race (who was still the same Dario Franchitti) in order to win the second title in his career. It almost succeeds - he leads shortly before the finish, but Dario saves fuel better at the end of the race, and Scott stops at the finish lap with an empty tank. Frankitti wins the final stage of the season and takes the championship title ^[9] .

In 2008, Franchitti leaves the series. thereby simplifying the title winnings for the New Zealander. Dixon is still super stable and, with the exception of a single failure in St. Petersburg, does not doubt his superiority over competitors. In late May, Scott wins his first Indy 500 race. During the season, the New Zealander sets his own record for the number of races won in the series for the season (in addition to Indianapolis, victories were won in Homestead, Texas, Nashville, Edmonton and Kentucky) and relatively quickly brings its lead over the nearest competitor in the championship to a significant one. As a result, even having smeared the finish segment of the season (one mistake with tactics in Sonoma cost a significant reduction in the gap in the champion race), he nonetheless confidently wins the season, completing it with a spectacular second place in Chicago, where only 0.0033 managed to make out seconds that separated him from victory.

During that season, Dixon broke several records: for example, he became the most winning pilot of the Ganassi team (having replaced Alessandro Zanardi ); having proliferated 869 laps during the year, he set a new record for the series in this indicator. All this, however, turned out to be the flip side - his teammate Dan Weldon against the background of these two years of the New Zealander, even despite his two 4th places in the championship, was not extended for the 2009 season ^[10] . Chip chose to partner with Dickson Darijo Franchitti , returning him to the series after the Scot's unsuccessful season at NASCAR. ^[11]

Dixon’s success was also noted in his homeland - he received the title “New Zealand Athlete of the Year 2008” ^[12] . Also, Scott was among only five selected people in the world of motors (along with Danny Hume , Bruce Maclaren , Ivan Moger and Hugh Anderson ) who were honored to be depicted on a special series of stamps of the New Zealand mail ^[13] .

2009-13. Frankitti and dickson

In 2009, Scott fought for the title with Franchitti and Brisco all season and again the title fight was reduced to the last race. The New Zealander is inferior to both direct competitors, but the backlog in the previous stages is enough for second place in the championship. In general, problems began to appear on the roads along the season - the three worst races (16th in Long Beach , 15th in St. Petersburg and 13th in Sonoma ) were held there. At the end of the season, Dixon improved his achievement by the number of races won in the series by another 5 victories, making him the most successful pilot of the championship in this respect.

In 2010, the New Zealander for the first time in a long time fell out of the fight for the title long before the final stages. As a result, the end of the season came down to a fight for 3rd place in the championship with Elio Castronevez , which was successfully completed thanks to the victory in the final race of the season. One of the components of the recession in the championship was only nine finishes in Top5 (with three wins). In the next two seasons, Dixon again brings one of the once key parts of his season - the stages on the road type: local failures each time drop him to third place in the individual standings and if in 2011 the place in the top three was taken with a sufficient margin, then in 2012, Castroneves was only four points behind him. In the same year, Scott, for the first time since his last championship season, jo of the last laps fights to win the Indy 500 , second only to his teammate Dario Franchitti . In the same 2012 year, Dixon showed the versatility of his racing talent, without a serious decline in the results, having survived a chassis change (which a more experienced Scot could not achieve).

The year 2013 did not bring much change compared to previous seasons: the championship quickly became clear favorite - Elio Castronevez - noticeably ahead of all rivals in the stability of the finishes, and Scott again fought only in the group of his pursuers. The Brazilian, however, again lost the championship race: local problems with reliability made him lose a very large margin in the individual standings, and Dixon, despite several local failures (an optional fine for violating the pit stop procedure in Sonoma and a collision with Will Power in Baltimore ) , turned out to be the only one who caught up with and surpassed the Brazilian, and the fifth place in the season finale in Fontana guaranteed the New Zealander the first title in five years. End-season spurt was also possible thanks to the efforts of motorists: Honda updates allowed the Japanese to reduce the advantage of the Chevrolet .

Other series

In 2004, with the support of BMW , Dixon tried his hand at the tests of the Williams F1 team (the German-British alliance was looking for a replacement for the outgoing McLaren Juan Pablo Montoye ) in Paul Ricard and Catalunya . Both sides were quite satisfied with what they saw ^[14] , but neither the New Zealander at the wheel of the car nor Williams F1 , nor later the BMW Sauber appeared.

The New Zealander periodically appears in the North American series of sport prototypes (in particular in the ALMS and Rolex Sports Car Series ) as an additional pilot at the marathon stages. ALMS made its debut in 1999: Dixon, along with Stefan Johansson and Jim Matthews, piloted the Ferrari 333 SP as part of the Petit Le Mans . The crew could not finish the race, breaking only 225 laps. After 9 years, the New Zealander in three stages piloted the Acura prototype team Gilles de Ferrand . Participation in the Rolex Sports Car Series is largely connected with the performance for Chip Ganassi Racing : Chip also kept the team in this series and, partly from cost savings, attracted all the pilots from the teams under his control in various series to participate in the 24 hours of Daytona . Since 2004, Dixon has regularly played for his team at the Daytona International Speedway marathon. The best performance dates back to 2006 - Dixon in the carriage with Dan Weldon and Casey Mirz won that race.

The New Zealander also tried his hand at touring equipment racing: in 2010, the Kelly family brought him to his team for a double stage on the city ​​highway in God Costa .

• Official website
• Profile (German) on Speedsport magazine website
• Profile (English) on IRL IndyCar