As Scott Dixon headed into the pits following qualifying on Thursday afternoon, all he could hear in his radio headset was silence.
The 2008 Indy 500 and IndyCar series champion figured his team’s quest to surprise the field and grab the pole in LMP1 had come up just short - that is, until he pulled closer to his parking spot and saw his crew jumping up and down.
“It’s a little bit unexpected,” Dixon said after driving the No. 66 de Ferran Racing Acura ARX-02a to the pole for Saturday’s 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Fresh from Florida. “We were shooting for the pole, but realistically, we were looking at a third or fourth.
“These guys have done an amazing job - it’s only a pole, but for a first attempt, it’s a very good thing for them.”
Team owner and co-driver Gil de Ferran was hugging anybody standing near enough, Honda officials were doing high-fives and Nick Wirth, the designer of the all-new Acura ARX 02a sports car, crouched behind the pit wall covering tear-filled eyes with his hands.
“The radio was dead silent all the way until I came in,” said reigning IndyCar Series champion Dixon. “So I suspected we’d been passed and lost the pole anyway. To come in and see them jumping up and down was pretty special.”
Dixon, who will share the cockpit with fellow Indianapolis 500 winner de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud in Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, had just done what few thought possible — win a pole in the first event for the radically different car.
“It’s like nothing else I’ve driven,” Dixon said of the new car. “It’s good so far that we’re sitting on the pole and yet they’ve only been developing the car for a few months.
“The Audis were quick out of the box and laid down a great time. But I think the (80-degree) heat helped us, and the longer you run the Acura on the same set of tires it seems to get better and better.”
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