Low-Key Dixon Hopes Victory Does The Talking In 2004 At Indy
By Dick Mittman
indianapolismotorspeedway.com
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

New Zealand native Scott Dixon kicked the Rugby World Cup right off the front page of the New Zealand Herald newspaper when he won the Indy Racing League® IndyCar® Series championship in October.

"When the Rugby World Cup is on, normally nothing would take that off the front page," said Dixon's mother, Glenys Dixon, about her son winning the championship.

Now Dixon wants to make even more headlines in May 2004 by winning the 88th Indianapolis 500.

"That would be fabulous, fabulous," Glenys Dixon said. "That would be pretty good as far as the New Zealand public is concerned because the two things we're really into in motor racing in New Zealand are Formula One and the Indy 500, the two things everybody knows."

Dixon qualified fourth as a rookie at Indianapolis in May and led 15 laps in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz G Force/Toyota/Firestone. But a brush with the pit wall and a subsequent spin in the middle of the track during a caution period on Lap 191 eliminated him in 17th place.

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If Dixon, 23, wins this May at Indy, he will enjoy the spoils of being the center of attention in the racing world. It will be quite a contrast from when he was a youngster growing up in New Zealand and Australia.

His father, Ron, and mother drove race cars when they were younger and owned a quarter-mile track in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, a small coastal community near the Great Barrier Reef. Scott was born in Australia. The family moved back to New Zealand when he was 6, and their son now carries dual citizenship although he calls New Zealand home.

The Dixons put Scott in a kart when he was 7. His father said he took to it like a duck to water.

"He was extremely good," Ron Dixon said. "He always thought he could do it, and I suppose basically we felt the same. He has that little bit extra."

But Scott had zero swagger outside of the kart.

"He was incredibly shy as a child, like you didn't get much out of him," Glenys Dixon said. "People would speak to him, and he would hang his head.

"He got better with the go-karting, I think, because after the go-karting races the kids would have to get out and make a speech. So that started to bring him out of it a bit."

Scott started to make more of those speeches as his racing career accelerated quickly.

A picture of a pudgy, middle school student Dixon in his driver's suit appeared in the sports pages of the New Zealand Herald in 1993. He had been granted a special license to race at Pukekohe, a 1.752-mile Grand Prix circuit outside of Auckland, New Zealand.

Scott was the youngest driver ever to compete in a single-seat open-wheel car in New Zealand, his mother said, and this put him in the limelight long before he came to America to compete in 1999.

Once in the U.S., Dixon won the Indy Lights title in 2000 and was named CART Rookie of the Year in 2001. He started the 2002 season with PacWest and switched to Target Chip Ganassi Racing in June. Dixon moved with Ganassi to the IndyCar® Series full time starting with the 2003 season, and Dixon won the title in his first attempt. Still, he never showed one shred of cockiness outside of the car.

"He basically comes up here to do a job," Ron Dixon said. "He doesn't seem to show a lot of outward emotion. But then again, he's so focused on what he's doing. He's never changed."

And while Scott stays low-key about his success, the Dixon family and race fans throughout New Zealand are excited about his winning ways.

"Basically, I think we're all over the moon," Ron Dixon said. "It was very exciting for everybody, the family. We were all together watching the live race on TV. We got all the races live. That was a big thing for us between 5 in the morning and 8 in the morning.

"And it was always on a Monday morning, so we started to work late on Mondays."

There could be quite a few workers in New Zealand taking a day off Monday, May 31 - the day after the 88th Indianapolis 500 - if Scott Dixon wins the Borg-Warner Trophy. ***

2004 tickets: Tickets are available for the 2004 Indianapolis 500. For information, log on to www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com, or call the IMS ticket office at (800) 822-INDY or (317) 492-6700.


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