Motorsport: Dixon revved up for Indy spectacular

Scott Dixon with wife Emma and daughter Tilly after qualifying fastest for the Indianapolis 500. Photo / AP

The annual Indianapolis 500 is one of the greatest single-seater races on the global motorsport calendar. Regarded by the home crowd as the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing", anyone with more than a passing knowledge of motor sport would be hard pressed to disagree.

The race is ranked right up there with the best and is part of the Triple Crown of motorsport, which also includes the Le Mans 24 Hour and the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix - also on this weekend. On their own merits each of these events is hard enough to win and only one man has managed the feat of winning all three: Graham Hill.

And speaking of feats, in 2008 New Zealander Scott Dixon became the first Kiwi to cross the "yard of bricks" and get his likeness carved on to the Borg Warner Trophy, as well as drinking a pint of milk. He won from pole that day, and in what many people think is an auspicious sign will again start the 2015 race from pole.

His four-lap average was 365km/h, ahead of Will Power (364km/h) and Simon Pagenaud (363.8km/h) and he became the first non-Team Penske driver to start from pole in eight races. Winning pole is not winning the race, but the cheque Dixon received for $136,600 will go a way towards easing any pain in not winning his second Indy 500.

"There's a lot of prestige in getting pole and I'm pleased we were able to do it," said Dixon who was on a whirlwind trip to Texas.

"It's like having two races here at Indy. It's something you try and shoot for but it's not the race. For us it was difficult because they changed everything the day before [teams had to run the cars in race trim to bring the speeds down as a number of cars crashed heavily including James Hinchcliffe who was hospitalised].

"We spent a lot of time getting the car ready for fast Friday where they trim it out and increase the boost, only for them [the organisers] to limit what we could do.

"I reckon we could have had an even bigger margin with less downforce and more boost. The car was so fast in the morning before they changed the rules, which threw a few spanners in the works. The team did a great job though, in turning the car around."

After a bit of a horror start to the season when Dixon was sitting 15th on the points table at one stage, his Chip Ganassi Racing team turned things around at Long Beach with a win followed by another podium at Alabama to move up to fourth.

In preparation for Monday morning's (NZ time) race start, Dixon's engineers have taken a measured and strategic approach to giving the Kiwi the best possible car for race day.

"We'd run the car, go back to the pits and think about it rather than changing things immediately where you could get a bit lost. This approach worked really well as we set our fastest lap early in qualifying so I didn't have to do too many laps to scare myself," he said.

Race day is a different kettle of fish though. There are so many variables during the 800km of flat-out racing that everything has to be perfectly aligned to cross the line ahead of the chasing pack.

In the five races so far in the 2015 IndyCar season there have been five different winners. Trying to nail down a shoo-in for victory lane this year is nigh on impossible.

"All of us would be okay with a replica of 2008. Unfortunately there are 32 others who don't want that to happen. The competition this year is tough.

"There are a lot of good cars - it's like that most years - but this year it's going to be pretty fierce out there.

"A lot of the younger drivers are chasing the big speed. You'll also find a lot of the Hondas will do okay in the race [Dixon is now Chevy powered] so that'll also mix it up.

"If something does go wrong you want it to happen early in the race just so you can redeem yourself. If you're going to have a bad pitstop you want it to happen early on so you can make the places back up.

"If something happens late in the game you're hosed because the competition is so good these days," said Dixon.

The New Zealander is fired up for the race as is his team, more so this year coming off winning pole. There is a little reticence, however, up and down pit lane due to the high number of spectacular crashes in the weeks running up to the race.

The Indianapolis 500 is the single biggest live sporting event in the world where the stadium alone seats 250,000 spectators. Although there has never been an official count of how many fans populate the infield and the car park, estimates put the number at a further 150,000 to 200,000.

After four rounds:
1. Juan Pablo Montoya 171
2. Will Power 166
3. Helio Castroneves 153
4. Scott Dixon 144
5. Graham Rahal 144
6. Tony Kanaan 136
7. Josef Newgarden 129
8. James Hinchcliffe 129