I ‘watched’ the final round of the NTT IndyCar Series from St Petersburg, Florida (on Monday morning) via a combination of the Series’ own live-timing ‘app’ on its website, and – don’t laugh – the NZ Herald’s ‘delayed live’ coverage presented by reporter Chris Rattue.
I put quote marks around the word ‘watched’ though for a reason. I was actually up at time when the sparrows were eating rich food (i.e. even before ‘sparrow’s fart!’) working on coverage of this year’s KartSport NZ North & South Island Sprint Championships meetings – so I really only had one eye on what was going on at ‘St Pete.’
Which, on reflection, was probably a good thing.
Yes, I know I should have been equally interested in how that ‘other’ Scott in the field, Scott McLaughlin, was doing. But bar scanning through the commentators’ comments to find out what happened to him, my interest was really with his namesake.
For what I’d like to think of as obvious reasons….
It was this time of year, (way) back in 1994 (26 years) ago for instance that I headed to Bay Park to watch Scott contest the second round of that season’s NZ Formula Vee championship and put together a press release about it on Sunday night.
I’m as sure as I can be (or at least I am without verifying documentation to the contrary) that it was there that Scott won his first series’ race.
Sadly all I can properly remember from that round, however, is some total wanker in a white coat refusing me entry to the pits because (though I was walking) I didn’t have a car pass sticker, and commentator Chudleigh Hackett opining that Scott’s aggressive ‘Go Kart’ tactics would never get him far in the (apparently, far more genteel) world of local single-seater racing!!!
To which, all I really have to say to that today is a hearty ‘yeah right!’
In retrospect I was probably way too sensitive to any form of criticism or ‘my’ young (he was after-all only 13 at the time) charge at the time.
Having seen with my own eyes, more than enough flashes of the extraordinary ability that has subsequently served the now 40-year-old husband and father-of-three so well in his career I guess I was just impatient that it was taking others – particularly those in positions of power and/or influence in the motorsport community here – so long to see what was so bleeding, blindingly, obvious to me.
To his eternal credit Formula Vee class racer (and local motorsport elder statesman Rob Lester (father of Richard and Debbie, and grandfather of Jono..) was an early convert, despite Scott’s entry that year pretty much denying him of (yet another) Formula Vee class title.
Despite being in his late 50s Rob was definitely the class of the NZ Formula Vee field at the time and welcomed the arrival of the hard-charging youngster…..with a challenge along the lines of ‘if he can beat me then he must be good.’
Which, as anyone who is anyone – in racing as well as out of it – just seems to ‘know’ these days.
You don’t for instance, win 6 IndyCar titles by accident. You might win one with a bit of luck and a fair breeze. I could even see someone winning two or even three before getting out and going on to do something else (In much the same way young Scott McLaughlin has done in Supercars come to think of it).
But titles 4, 5 and now 6? That’s when people start talking about the twin and very much related concepts of true greatness and legacy.
Which – in my humble opinion – is premature. Because if Scott has proved one thing over the years it is that he was born to race. And that until he finds something he’d prefer to do I think he will continue to ply his trade from his home in Indianapolis on the permanent road, part-time ‘street’ courses and any number of different configurations of ovals that organisers of the NTT IndyCar Series choose to come up with next year, and the year after that and the year after…and well, you get the picture.
In fact, then only thing that might stop Scott in his quest to follow in the footsteps of his original mentor Ken Smith is the competitiveness of the team he has driven for since 2002.
Chip Ganassi Racing has given Scott some of the best, and best prepared in the business – whether it be in the CART, IRL, NTT IndyCar or Daytona 24 Hour sports car series.
For his part Scott has built up a special rapport/friendship with Chip Ganassi and his eponymously named team’s managing director, Mike Hull.
In saying that I’ve often wondered why Scott has not gone out to the open market to see what else is ‘on the table.’
I know, I can well remember Aaron Slight staying loyal to Honda towards the end of his long and successful career, despite issues which saw the Kiwi often struggle against the works Ducati V-twins on his V4 RC45.
At the same time outspoken rival Carl Fogarty had been with Ducati for yonks – only to accept an offer from Honda to swap to their RC45 riding alongside the Kiwi ace.
Loyalty was obviously a foreign concept to the ‘needy’ Northern Englishman, however. who had barely kept the Honda’s seat warm before negotiating a (no doubt ‘big buck’) return to Ducati.
Valentino Rossi has also played ‘musical marques’ over the years
So why not Scott?
Imagine the headlines the US media would generate should Scott decide to accept an offer (which I’m sure has been made!!) to lead the (relatively) new Arrow McLaren SP team. You know, Scott Dixon, a ‘Kiwi’ joining the team which takes its name from that other mercurial NZer, Bruce McLaren, and which is still remembered fondly in the US for its domination of the Can-Am sports car series (aka ‘The Bruce & Denny show’) in their matching Papaya Orange two-seaters.
Even just having Scott standing by (or better still tucked down low in the cockpit) of one of the original McLaren M15 or Papaya Orange M16 Offenhausers would generate huge cross-generational hype for ‘the next Indy 500,’ a race, remember, he has won once before, back in 2008, and finished second in this year.
Fanciful the notion of Scott leaving the Chip Ganassi squad may be, I still cannot see him leaving the US and heading ‘home’ anytime soon.
As US cities go, Indianapolis might not enjoy the ‘’must visit’ status of a San Francisco, Chicago or New York, but as another long-term resident (and in his case, former racer) Wade Cunningham told me when we caught up back in Auckland a couple of years ago, it’s a ‘racing town’ through and through, and if you are an IndyCar racer you are the equivalent of an All Black here.
True, Scott’s home is nominally Auckland and he owns an apartment at ‘The Mount. But wife Emma is from the UK and, daughters Poppy and Tilly, and recent addition to the family, son Kit, were all ‘born in the USA’ so the very thought of Scott upping stakes and heading back ‘home’ to New Zealand, or even to Australia’s Gold Coast – say – to fulfil a ‘retirement wish’ and spend the last few years before his dotage blasting around in a V8-engied Supercar is, well, let’s just say that the chance of it happening in the next 4-5 years are remote…
What I think is going to happen is that Scott Dixon will remain the ‘bloke-to-beat’ in the NTT IndyCar Series for the foreseeable future.
And, by the time he finally decides to ‘bow out’ he will do so at the absolute top of his game, a place where he has been plying his trade since he was – literally – a boy!
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