Dixon scores maiden victory
BY JUSTIN LACY | 7th May 2001
In doing so, the 20-year old New Zealander became the youngest driver to win a CART Champ Car race, replacing the late Greg Moore who won at Milwaukee in 1997 at 22 years of age.
He was also only the second driver to win a race from such a low starting position, knocking on the door of the record held by Mike Mosley who started 25th and won at Milwaukee in 1981.
"After qualifying so poorly yesterday, this really helped to bring me up," Dixon said. "I don't know how this will affect the team, but I do know it's just the lift they've needed."Team Rahal's Kenny Brack was unlucky not to claim his first CART victory, finishing second after starting from the front row of the grid and leading for the most number of laps.
Paul Tracy took the last podium position for Team KOOL Green, ahead of Jimmy Vasser and Christian Fittipaldi who both produced season best performances.
Dixon's Toyota-powered Reynard suffered from fuel feed problems during Friday's practice sessions and understeer during qualifying on the Saturday, leaving him languishing in 23rd on the grid out of 25 cars.
An inspired pit stop strategy by his Pac West team saw Dixon come into the pits during the first full-course caution period on lap seven, helping him to pick up track positions as other drivers pitted mid-race.
"We're lucky we saved a lot of fuel early in the race so we could run full rich and our car was really strong on the exits of the corners," he said.
The young New Zealander's victory ended a long winless streak for the Pac West team, who had not visited the top of the podium since Mark Blundell won the 1997 season finale.
The weekend belonged to rookies, as Bruno Junqueira took pole position in just the third race of his CART career and his first time out on an oval track.
He led for the first few corners before being passed by Brack and ended up finishing seventh.
The day's only major accident involved defending CART champion Gil de Ferran and Canadian Alex Tagliani in the Player's/Forsythe Racing entry.
On lap 121, de Ferran drove into Tagliani's left rear tyre as they headed into turn four with both cars ending up in the wall. Both drivers escaped serious injury, with Tagliani suffering from back soreness.
Cristiano da Matta and Tracy are now tied for the championship lead on 40 points, breaking up the Brazilian trifecta at the top of the table.
De Ferran and Vasser are equal third on 30 points, while Brack has been the big mover, jumping from ninth to fifth courtesy of his second placing.
Helio Castroneves' 11th place added just two points to his tally, dropping him from third to sixth as a result.
RACE RESULTS1 Scott Dixon (Toyota) 1:51:12.4192 K Brack (Ford-Cosworth) +0.3663 P Tracy (Honda) +1.3444 J Vasser (Toyota) +1.7445 C Fittipaldi (Toyota) +4.2256 Michael Andretti (Honda) +6.4017 B Junqueira (Toyota) +9.1938 Dario Franchitti (Honda) +9.2929 Oriol Servia (Ford-Cosworth) +12.32110 C da Matta (Toyota) +12.557DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP1 da Matta (BRA) 402 Tracy (CAN) 403 de Ferran (BRA) 304 Vasser (USA) 305 Brack (SWE) 296 Castroneves (BRA) 297 Andretti (USA) 208 Dixon (NZ) 209 Franchitti (SCO) 1710 Tony Kanaan (BRA) 12MANUFACTURERS' CHAMPIONSHIP1 Toyota 582 Honda 523 Ford-Cosworth 32Next round: Firestone Firehawk 500, Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi, Japan - May 19