Motorsport: Dixon takes Indy changes in his stride

Kiwi among fastest qualifiers to line up for premium one-day motor race next weekend

One of the most recognised phrases in the world, "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines" will reverberate around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next Sunday.

The Indy 500 will boom into action at 1pm local time as the 33 successful qualifiers launch into action for the 94th running of the event.

This is the world's biggest single-day motor race, where more than 400,000 people turn up to watch. Last year the Indy 500 was beamed to 212 countries and into more than 294 million homes.

Not only is there a New Zealander, Scott Dixon, competing, he is also a former winner, having lifted the Borg Warner Trophy in 2008, the only Kiwi to do so.

The run-up to the race used to be known as the month of May where the cars had four weeks to practise and qualify. The amount of track time has been reduced this year to two weeks to save costs and Dixon has been fast straight out of the box this week. He has been the fastest on two consecutive days and inside the top seven on the others.

"The schedule is a lot tighter this year so you've got to get organised a bit sooner," said Dixon after practice. "I'm a bit of a traditionalist and personally would have preferred it to have remained the way it was.

"But I can see what they're trying to do for the fans, the show and everything. It's going to be a big race day, man, a really big day. Real good to watch."

Less than a second covered 35 drivers on a lap of the 4km track with Dixon one of the fastest at 39.6526 seconds (365km/h) and 25 other drivers within half a second of him. So far it has been a mixed bag, as seven different teams and seven different countries were represented in the top 10.

"It's really good to come to Indy after a win at Kansas. It helps the team morale and confidence. But unfortunately the speed we showed at Kansas doesn't translate to Indy. The track is so different," Dixon said.

"I'm feeling pretty good about things this year, though. I'm part of a good team and feeling confident and rolling straight off the truck we're fast. Penske's fast as well and it's going to make qualifying tough.

"They'll be pushing as hard as they can but I'd be disappointed if we didn't end up on the front two rows. As for the race, I'm pretty confident," said Dixon.

This year's race has a different qualifying system - over one weekend rather than two. The major change as far as the fans and drivers are concerned is a nine-driver shoot- out starting at 3am tomorrow NZ time.

Every driver gets three shots at making it to the 33 grid spots. The quickest 24 drivers automatically face the starter's flag while the rest fight it out on bump day - Sunday.

Places 10-24 are set and there is an additional 90 minutes for the nine fastest to do it all again to see who gets pole.

"For both Target cars it's been a good few days. We're trying to run just one set of tyres per car for the first two days as tyre management is going to be key when it comes to doing proper qualifying. So far so good.

"We just want to make sure we've got tyres spare when we need them to get that extra speed for the pole. [This year teams are allowed only 33 sets for the two weeks including race day and an extra two if you make it into the fast nine]," Dixon said. "On the whole everyone's pretty confident in the team and hopefully we'll get a good result."

INDY FACTS
* 44 cars have passed technical inspection.
* 37 drivers have been on the track.
* 33 drivers only will qualify.
* 5 women attempting to qualify - the most ever.
* 7289 laps this month.
* 200 laps on race day.
* 0 drivers have been in the top five on the speed charts more than four of the five days.
* 4 days is the best in top five set by Scott Dixon.
* $263,000 prize to setting pole.
* $3.7m to last year's winner. The year's winner won't know until after the race as laps, times, qualifying etc all go to make the total.