WANGANUI'S rising star Earl Bamber has nothing but admiration for Scott Dixon who continues to blaze a path for Kiwis on the international motor racing scene. Dixon this week became the first New Zealander, and the eighth foreign-born winner in the past 10 years, of north America's biggest motor race, theIndianapolis 500. Bamber, 17, one of the leading lights among New Zealand's crop of young drivers, said it was an amazing feat by Dixon. "To be the first Kiwi driver to win there is absolutely incredible," he said. "It does so many good things for the sport back home in New Zealand. It really puts our name on the map and shows the world that we've got a lot of talented drivers." Bamber has never met Dixon but follows his career "reasonably closely", taking particular interest in his path to the top, which kicked off when he won the New Zealand Formula Vee Championship as a 13-year-old. "He's definitely one to aspire to, because we all want to be successful young racing car drivers and everyone's looking at the way he got there, how he did Formula Vees and Formula Fords and stuff like that." Bamber said Dixon had worked hard and "never given up on his dream," even during the toughest times, and it had paid off. So will Dixon's Indy win place extra pressure on the likes of Bamber and Brendon Hartley to succeed on the world stage? Bamber doesn't think so. "I'm not sure it's so much pressure because I see it as a positive for the sport. Each sport's always competing for its own media and with Scott Dixon winning, it puts motorsport on the front page." "It gives us younger guys such a boost with sponsors and with motorsport in general, and everyone's talking about it." "There's always pressure to perform with sponsors at each race event, but I just take it race by race and see what comes from it." Bamber, whose ultimate goal is to make it into Formula One, hopes to drive A1 GP for New Zealand this year, and with Ferrari on board this year says "you never know what might come about from that". His next mission is the second round of the Formula V6 Asia championship in Malaysia on June 21, 22. He won the opening round two weekends ago.
