The chameleon champion
Dixon praised for his ability to adapt
Scott Dixon has been described as ‘‘a chameleon’’ with ‘‘exceptional desire’’ because of his abilities to change and adapt to the increasing pressures of Indycar racing.
The 38-year-old New Zealand won his fifth Indycar championship in California on Monday (NZT), ranking him second only to American AJ Foyt, who won seven titles.
Dixon, whose previous titles came in 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2015, broke clear of a tie with four-time winners Dario Franchitti, Mario Andretti and Sebastien Bourdais.
Franchitti, who also won the Indy 500 three times, is now an adviser to Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing team, and was glowing in his praise of the flying Kiwi.
‘‘He’s a chameleon,’’ Franchitti told Indycar.com, likening Dixon to the lizard that can change colours.
‘‘He adapts to different styles of cars and different styles of tyres. He learns from every team mate he’s got. He uses every resource he can get, and he’ll ask questions of them. You see the results.
‘‘Talent only gets you so far. ‘‘He’s got lots of it, maybe more than I’ve ever raced against. That’s saying a lot with some of the people I’ve raced against. He just keeps working at it. That desire is exceptional.’’
Mike Hull, the managing director and race strategist for Chip Ganassi Racing, also marvelled at Dixon’s temperament and knowledge built over 18 years in the Indycar scene.
‘‘He understands what he has to do, and he understands the art of recovery extremely well,’’ Hull said.
‘‘He doesn’t give up and we don’t give up. There are times when we’ve left the racetrack knowing we could have done better than we did, but we accept the reality of what happened. It was hard to race the kind of race we did,’’ Hull added of Dixon being under orders to race second to Ryan Hunter-reay in California once the threat of his main title rival Alexander Rossi faded early.
American Hunter-reay felt Dixon’s accomplishment of snaring a full hand of titles shouldn’t be under-estimated in a championship which saw eight different winners this season and for the 13th year in a row went down to the last race.
‘‘To do that in this era of racing with reliability the way it is, the evenness and competitiveness of teams, is unbelievable,’’ Hunter-reay said.
‘‘It’s unthinkable what he’s accomplished. It’s amazing to think of what he’s accomplished. It’s great to share the track with him. Even better to beat him at times.’’
Dixon was at his humble best as he soaked up his accomplishment but brushed off claims he is a legend in the sport.
‘‘I don’t see myself that way at all,’’ Dixon told Autoweek.
‘‘I feel lucky. I’m very, very blessed in many ways . . . racing career, to meet the love of my life with Emma, have a great family, two beautiful girls.
‘‘I feel lucky I get to do what I love to do. I enjoy racing. I get to work with the best in the business. I don’t know. I just don’t see it that way. I hope that I continue for more years to come and enjoy the sport for what it is.
‘‘When you get into these situations where there’s a lot on the line, sometimes even this weekend, you don’t really enjoy it as much.
‘‘I think over the past couple years, I think we’ve really tried to enjoy the atmosphere that we’re in, the people that we get to work with, the friends and everybody in the business. I respect greatly AJ, Mario, Michael Andretti, the Unsers, everybody in the sport, what they’ve achieved.
‘‘I just feel lucky to be here.’’