By Dave Lewandowski
indianapolismotorspeedway.com
Thursday, October 2, 2008
So how do two Indianapolis 500 winners participating for different teams in divergent auto racing series with overlapping schedules hook up to co-drive in the 11th Petit Le Mans?
Like many things in motorsports, which is business after all, it's about networking.
"I'm not even sure how it all started, but I think we had just been sitting and talking," said reigning IndyCar Series and Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon, who is joining team owner Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud in driving the No. 66 Panasonic ELS Surround de Ferran Acura ARX-01b at Road Atlanta. "I think we were both interested in trying to get together."
Working the 10-hour/1,000-mile race Saturday, Oct. 4 race into Dixon's endurance schedule took considerable planning, but little convincing.
"Scott is certainly one of the best drivers in the world today, so when we were thinking about it -- sort of who will be the greatest guys to have in the car -- his name was certainly on the top of the list," said de Ferran, the 2003 Indy 500 winner. "Obviously, we know each other from other years in the Indy Car Series. I was glad to find fertile ground when we spoke."
Added Dixon after working on driver changes during simulated fueling stops: "Motor racing these days, outside of sports car racing, you're not really in the car too often. You only have very short practices. We have short races and, as far as for a driver, I still love just doing laps and I just want to be out there. I think sports car racing is the only kind of place that you can find that, apart from maybe going into karting and things like that. So for me, it's fantastic track time. And it has the alliance with Honda and Acura and the cars are very similar (to IndyCars).
"It's interesting, and it's definitely separate and different from what we typically do."
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Dixon has been bouncing around the globe since clinching the series title Sept. 9 at Chicagoland Speedway -- London (visiting in-laws), New Zealand (media obligations), Indianapolis (Firestone tire test), Memphis (Target Chip Ganassi Racing function), and finally the heart of Georgia. Once in the LMP2 class car, however, Dixon felt settled if not totally prepared.
Aside from competing multiple times in the 24 Hours At Daytona with Ganassi Racing, Dixon's only other sports car start came in 1999 (his first year in the United States), co-driving a Ferrari 33 SP with Stefan Johansson and Jim Matthews.
"The (de Ferran) team is fantastic; a lot of familiar faces from the PacWest days, and it's good to be working with (team manager) John Anderson again," Dixon said. "Gil and Simon definitely have been very welcoming. The transition to the car is a little difficult. The cars corner very fast. They have 6,000 or 7,000 pounds of downforce on high-speed corners, which is a ton more than the IndyCar. It took me a little while to get used to the track."
The transition to sports cars has been like a Rosetta Stone course for de Ferran, who is wrapping up his first (partial) season after leaving the Formula One paddock as the Honda program's director. The team will make the transition to LMP1 next season with Acura power.
"(The Petit Le Mans) is definitely the longest race that I have competed in as a driver, which I am looking forward to, and it will also be the longest race that we, as a team, will be taking on this season," he said. "We've been preparing for this event for quite awhile, and we have tried hard to understand and anticipate all of the challenges that this type of race will present to us.
"I think having Scott on board for this weekend is a great addition to our driver lineup, and we look forward to a very competitive show."
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On TV: SPEED will televise coverage of the Petit Le Mans on Saturday, Oct. 4 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and from 6:30-11 p.m.
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