“New Zealand’s fastest bogan has won the big cheese,” was how a Herald colleague announced Scott Dixon’s knighthood. The country’s most enduring IndyCar export is now Sir Scott Dixon.
“That was kind of crazy,” Dixon said. “Totally out of the blue, I didn’t even know if the email was legit.”
The idea that a career that has played out over 20-plus years, and at times over 380km/h, could be capped by a notification delivered digitally was a bit of an eyebrow raise for Dixon but it did spark a lot of emotions and memories.
“For me, you go into a reminisce stage. You automatically go back to the start like the first time driving a go-kart and then all the rest of the memories happened at warp speed,” Dixon said.
That “warp speed” is a lifetime of snapshots. The early grind, the family sacrifice, the people who opened doors when there wasn’t money to force them. In Dixon’s head, the honour didn’t start on an oval in America, it started with mum and dad, and a kid finding his way into racing with equal parts talent and timing.
Fans often skip to the championships, records, the Indianapolis 500 and the decades of consistency in a category that eats careers for breakfast, but Dixon will always remember the list of people and moments that made it possible.
Kenny Smith is a prominent feature, who Dixon credits with sharpening his understanding of car set-up and guiding key race transitions. Then there’s Peter Johnson, Craig Harris and Sir Colin Giltrap – names that mean a lot in the New Zealand motorsport ecosystem because they represent the unglamorous reality of getting a driver out of New Zealand and into the wider world of motorsport.
“You’ve got to start with your parents. My dad, for sure. Without him, it never would have started,” Dixon said.
From there, the list expands into a very New Zealand kind of network. Dixon credits the “Scott Dixon Contingency Group” as the investment effort that helped get him moving and not just as a career launch pad, but as something that became a model for others.
“We kind of proved that it worked. Others have used a similar model and it keeps the cycle going,” he said.
There’s part of the story fans don’t always see. Motorsport can look like a rich kid’s game from the outside but there is so much more to it than being successful on the track.
“It really is teamwork. On a three-car team, we travel with over 100 people each weekend. A driver is like a quarterback in American football. You’re not just fast, you’re an anchor point. You’re meant to pull everyone’s thinking into the same direction, especially when the weekend starts going wrong,” he said.
Dixon has been in enough teams to recognise when the drive for success wins championships. He still remembers the hard fact about success when he landed at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“The biggest change was the team’s mentality. All they spoke about was winning. They didn’t care about anything else. Chip [Ganassi, team owner] would say ‘If you win, everything else takes care of itself’.”
The knighthood sits in that same space for him. It’s not a homage to speed, but recognition of what happens in a team that wants success and the responsibility that comes with that, including a wider community outside racing and the influence a successful sportsman can have.
“It’s all about outside racing giving back to the community and the partnerships you make away from the track and causes you get involved in. I’ve been involved for a long time with youth cancer charity Canteen, Teen Cancer USA, St Jude and others.
“There’s such a big part of motorsport that I don’t think the public understand. It’s about safety and teamwork, mental agility, dealing with stress and all that unseen grind,” he said.
Listen to Dixon long enough and there’s an underlying ethos that comes through and it’s about how he processes success – gratitude, community and the quiet confidence that comes from hard yards rather than headlines.
That last line matters, because a knighthood can tempt an athlete into reinvention. A new title, a new identity, a new level of separation from the person they used to be. Dixon doesn’t buy it.
“Trust me, I don’t expect any of this stuff. I’m still Scott from Greenmeadows Ave, Manurewa.”
That mindset helped build a driver who has set more IndyCar records than you can poke a stick at. But if you ask Dixon what he remembers most, he doesn’t start with a race or trophy, he starts with a year.
“2008 as a whole would be it. Getting married to Emma in February, winning the Indy 500 in May and winning the championship in October, and Emma falling pregnant in November/December.
“The Indy 500 is the one that’s hard to top and that definitely took a long time to sink in.
“What I dwell on the most, though, are the losses. All the second places at the Indy 500, just missing out on a couple of championships and especially how close those losses were,” he said.
It’s a revealing line in a week when the country is effectively giving him a lifetime achievement award.Dixon doesn’t talk like someone closing a chapter, he talks like someone still chasing the next big trophy, and in particular, a second Indianapolis 500 win.
If you want proof, just ask a hypothetical – a knighthood, or another Indy 500 Borg-Warner Trophy.
“That’s a tough one,” he said. “I really want my second Borg Warner.”
It’s not disrespect, it’s the competitive truth. Racing doesn’t teach you to stop wanting more, it teaches you to get comfortable with wanting more and still functioning like a decent human being.
The little downtime Dixon gets, he likes to spend with family and on occasion, by himself.
“I like travelling and visit national parks a lot with the kids. Relaxing for me personally is training. Riding, running, swimming or being at the gym chills me out. Occasionally, I like reading a good book and in particular autobiographies,” he said.
Potentially the most delighted person in the household with the news of Dixon’s knighthood may be his wife Emma.
“She becomes [a] lady and is probably more impressed with the lady part than the sir part,” he said.
If you strip away the pomp, Dixon’s summary of what makes a career worthy of recognition is simple.
“In motor racing you’ve got to win and whenever you can, give back. It’s about community and not about yourself.
“Talent, yes, but also gratitude, hard work and not forgetting who helped you, mentored you and opened the door when it was needed.
“Growing up in New Zealand, you have a unique view of the world. We’re a small country with a big swing.
“That’s why many people from New Zealand pack a pretty big punch. It’s the upbringing, the never-give-up attitude. And Kiwis don’t really boast, we let results speak for themselves.
“Kiwis don’t really blow their own horn. They go about it fairly quietly and let results speak for themselves,” he said.
That, in the end, is why the knighthood fits. Not because it turns Scott Dixon into Sir Scott Dixon, but because it confirms what the best of New Zealand sport has always looked like: excellence, graft, humility and the instinct to pull someone else through the door behind you.
Most IndyCar career starts: 419
Most IndyCar career podiums (top three finishes): 145
Winning streak: 21 straight seasons with at least one win and wins in 23 seasons overall
Consecutive starts: 356
Most laps led total: 6913
Most laps led Indianapolis 500: 677
Most races led Indianapolis 500: 16
Second all-time race wins: 59
Second all-time championship wins: 6
Jim Clarke Trophy: 1999, 2001, 2004, 2009
Bruce McLaren Trophy: 2003, 2008
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit: 2009
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit: 2019
New Zealand Sportsman of the Year: 2008, 2013
Inducted into the MotorSport New Zealand Wall of Fame: 2009
NZ Post issued stamp: 2009
Road to Indy Hall of Fame: 2014
Named by Autosport magazine as one of the 50 greatest drivers to have never raced in F1: 2013
Inducted into the Open Wheel category of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America: 2024
Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame: 2025