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Ron McQueeney/IMS
Just making the grid takes a month of practice and qualifying to be one of the privileged 33 to take part in the greatest motor racing spectacle in the greatest stadium in motorsport.
And best of all it’s a Kiwi, Scott Dixon, who will have a clear track in front of him. This is the first time a Kiwi has sat on pole in the 92 runnings of this iconic race and it’s Dixon’s third pole in five races of the IRL series so far. A superb start to the season.
“Pole means a lot to the driver as you have to push so hard for the speed on pole day,” says Dixon. “But as far as preparing you for the race, pole doesn’t mean that much. As long as you start on the first three rows it’s probably enough to win the race. But pole does give you the bragging rights for a couple of weeks.”
“From year to year the conditions change,” says Dixon. “Each time the drivers turn up at the speedway there’s something new and the drivers are constantly learning. It’s a hard track to chase and you can have a pretty crap day pretty quickly.”
Weather plays a big part in how fast the teams go, says Dixon. “The temperature of the track surface affects how well the tyres work. If the wind gets up, it’ll buffet the cars around, upsetting their balance. You can get all four seasons in a day here. On light downforce, any bit of wind affects the car.”
“Indy’s an easy place to get into an over-confident situation,” says Dixon. “The car’s really good and everything’s going to plan and we’ll just cruise around, and the next thing is the car’s facing backwards heading to the wall and you’re going so fast it’s going to bloody hurt.”
“My biggest threat will be my teammate, Dan [Wheldon], as he’s got the same equipment and he’s won here before. Penske are always quick but they’ve been a little off this year and haven’t really challenged. Helio [Castroneves] may be leading the championship but he’s been lucky to gain the points he has.”
