Money, they reckon, makes the world go round. It certainly helped Scott Dixon get where he is today. Though I’m not sure anyone will ever be able to put an exact figure on how much it took, or indeed, who put up what, when and where?
Why? Because it was like this…..
When I offered to help ‘put a prop together’ for Scott’s Formula Vee campaign his Dad Ron already had a fair idea of how he was going to fund it; take a little bit of money from a lot of people (rather than the lot from just one) then have a draw so that a ‘lucky winner’ gets the main ‘naming rights deal’ and everyone else gets a sticker on the car and a nice warm feeling that they are also ‘part of the team.’
Being the friendly, out-going bloke he was, Ron had also attracted what I will call a ‘Saturday morning crew,’ of young (and not so young!!) blokes who would pop into his kart shop on a regular basis for a chat and to see what was new.
David Good and Andrew Reeves were two of those ‘Saturday morning crew members’ who would play key roles in what in effect was ‘the first commercial stage’ of Scott’s burgeoning career.
It was Dave, for instance, who introduced Ron to Linc Burgees the then CEO of a company called Cardlink Systems. As its name suggests, Cardlink Systems was in the business of managing things like fuel cards for customer companies. Dave had done a deal with them on behalf of the company he was tied up with and in general conversation the subject of Ron, Scott and the Vee campaign came up.
Linc was immediately receptive to both the idea of sponsorship and to getting involved ‘on the ground floor’ with a promising young driver and – long story short – the original plan got a quick ‘cut ‘n tuck.’
The Cooper brothers, Glenn and Neville, (of Stripeline Signs fame) were soon trimming the white and blue Wright Vee in a way more distinctive orange and yellow vinyl. And a new Cardlink product, DriveCard, became the official naming rights’ sponsor of the car while the original ‘party-plan’ players like Otahuhu Automatic Transmission Specialists (OTS) and Greenlane Speedshop got subsidiary spots depending on how much they put in.
Drivecard stepped up their involvement with Ron when Scott moved to the Class 2 Formula Ford class in 1994 for the 1994/95 Class 11 NZ Championship Series, before Andrew Reeves introduced and helped manage the relationship with Toshiba for the 1995/1996 Class 1 title assault.
At the end of the day, however, we were only raising enough money to get by. What was needed was a fresh approach. Which is exactly what Rotorua-based entrepreneur Chris Wingate delivered after reading about Scott’s phlight in article in a weekly business newspaper penned by the redoubtable Allan Dick.
Allan – who at that stage was combining a ‘day job’ as a Talkback host on Radio Pacific with an after-hours/weekend project producing Driver magazine – decided, without meeting Scott or even watching him race, that at 13 he was ‘too young’ to race. I’ll cover off this ‘too young’ BS in another Scott column, but needless to say the response was immediate and deafening. Those who either knew Scott from karting or had seen him run in his Vee reckoned he was doing OK and didn’t need some windbag on the radio saying otherwise.
To be fair on Allan he obviously knew – from long experience no doubt – when he was on the wrong end of public opinion and not long after penned a ‘this kid’s the real deal but needs money or his potential will go unrealized’ article which appeared in the business mag as well as his own magazine
I’m no fan of this style of ‘begging letter’ journalism because in my humble opinion no one ‘deserves’ anything. If you want something that badly you either work your ring off to get it or ‘fake it till you make it.’
It certainly had the desired effect on Chris Wingate however. Not only did he (pretty much immediately) contact Ron Dixon offering to help, he also gathered up a bunch of like-minded business types and invited them to a meeting to outline his plans for what in effect became the pivotal ‘second commercial stage’ of Scott’s racing career.
Sure the subject was Scott and his racing future but the reason the group was there was money, pure and simple. Not just ‘sponsorship’ money either. To a man the blokes who ended up part of the group – the likes of Japanese Used Import industry pioneer Peter ‘PJ’ Johnston, Craig Harris from McKay Shipping, Mark Ching from Armacup Shipping, Sir Colin Giltrap of The Giltrap Group and auto transmission guru Nelson Marshall (plus the many others who followed) had built successful businesses from nothing and were well versed in the concepts of seed capital, cash flow and – perhaps most importantly – risk and reward!
In theory there was little different in their approach or methodology to Scott, as there would have been if they had been asked to invest – say – in a bright young software developer, business entrepreneur or even actor or musician. That said no one (to any of our knowledge anyway) had tried to do it with a driver from New Zealand, let alone one who was still (at this stage) just 16 years of age!
The idea, however, was simple; raise enough money to get and keep Scott ‘in the game’ until he was picked up by a top team and instead of flowing out, the money (by way of a driver fee and sponsorship endorsements) would start flowing back in.
A company – Scott Dixon Motorsport – was formed with the aim of supporting Scott’s motor racing endeavours. Shares cost $5000 each and from what I remember we had little trouble selling them.
The result was that for the first time since he slipped behind the wheel of the ex-Frank Wright/Bernie Gillon Formula Vee Scott didn’t have to wonder where the money, to get to let alone do, the next race was coming from. Which was handy, because his next step was to return to Australia to try and win the 1998 Australian Gold Star championship title.
On which more in next week’s column!
Missed last week’s column? Then click on this link….The secret to Scott Dixon’s success Pt 1. Talent
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