Dixon looks to turn his luck around
No. 3 in IndyCar wins has won only twice at Exhibition Place
Sometimes, when you’re fourtime IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, who will be in Toronto for the Honda Indy next week, July13-15, it’s a bit tough to meet expectations.
After the first four races of the 2018 season went into the books without Dixon standing on a podium for the first time in 15 years, many began to wonder about the reasons for his slow start. For most drivers, starting a season with three top 6 finishes and sitting seventh overall in championship points wouldn’t be that disappointing, but most drivers aren’t the perennial title threat named Dixon.
Sadly for the rest of the field, it all turned out to be a temporary blip: By the time the series hit the halfway point of the season, Dixon added two more wins to his resume and put himself right back into the championship picture. He still insisted the start wasn’t good enough.
“The car has had really good speed and I think we’ve had good races, but we’ve either made mistakes or didn’t capitalize on the areas that we should have,” said Dixon, who turns 38 later this month.
“It’s the way racing goes, but typically that’s how we start, which is unfortunate because we kind of fall back and then we have to make up deficits.”
With his win in Texas earlier this season, Dixon passed seven-time Honda Indy Toronto winner Michael Andretti to take sole possession of third overall in career IndyCar victories with 43. The only two still ahead of the New Zealand native can only be described as racing legends: A.J. Foyt (67 wins) and Mario Andretti (52).
“To me, it still sounds crazy to have A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, and then Scott Dixon — I think the cool thing is that we are very lucky that (we) will still have A.J. at the races, we still have Mario there, and Michael (Andretti) there and the Unsers there,” he said.
It’s no surprise that a multiple champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner has plenty of fans, but one may be a bit of a surprise: Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff, who has quietly followed the Ganassi Racing driver’s career for the past 25 years, thinks Dixon’s accomplishments are “amazing.”
Dixon caught Wolff’s eye in 1994 when the future Mercedes boss was racing Formula Fords in New Zealand. Wolff recalled Dixon being the class of the field in Formula Vee, where he described the cars as looking like someone took one of the plastic trays that restaurants use to bus tables and bolted it to the top of a racing chassis.
“I know him, but he doesn’t know that I know him,” said Wolff, who still appeared relieved that Dixon was too young to race against him in Formula Fords 25 years earlier.
Wolff, who is responsible for the Mercedes’ racing efforts in Formula One, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), and sports cars, added it’s clear Dixon’s talent should have earned him a shot in F1. “That’s crazy — wow,” said Dixon when told that Wolff was one of his fans. “Back in those days in the 1980s and 1990s, there always was an influx of the Europeans because it was their off-season, so they’d all come down (to New Zealand) and race. When I actually got to Formula Ford racing, half the field was probably German, Brazilian, Spanish and English.”
As for not getting a shot at F1, Dixon dismissed it as a long forgotten lost opportunity: “Ah, it’s the way it goes sometimes. I can’t complain, I’ve been blessed in my career. I think when you are a 13-year-old in a Formula Vee championship, you look at the world totally differently and think, ‘Yeah it’s possible,’ but reality can be very different from your dreams, so I’m very fortunate man.”
Toronto hasn’t been good to Dixon, who has only two wins on the streets of Exhibition Place. Still, he rates Toronto at the top of his list for places he likes to visit because the track makes for good racing and fans are always passionate.