CART: Dixon takes advantage of test at Mid Ohio

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

August 15, 2001

(Lexington, OH) - PacWest rookie Scott Dixon took advantage of his final rookie test day Monday at Mid-Ohio following the running of the Miller Lite 200 on Sunday.

Dixon, who finished Sunday's race in the 12th and final points paying position, ran just under 200 miles on the 2.258-mile permanent road course testing new components on his 2001 Toyota Reynard. Joined by three other fellow drivers, Dixon put in a quick time of 1:06.5 seconds.

Dixon, the 21-year-old native of New Zealand, is currently tied for sixth in the points championship, while leading the Jim Trueman Rookie of the Year battle by 43 points over his closest competitor Bruno Junqueira, 70-27. He is currently eighth in laps led with 69, and he leads the series in laps completed after 13 races finishing 1,666 out of a possible 1,712. In May Dixon became the youngest-ever winner of a Champ Car race, scoring his first victory in Nazareth at the age of 20 years, nine months. The Kiwi has now registered nine points-paying finishes in his last 10 races.

Next up for Dixon, and his PacWest teammate Mauricio Gugelmin, is the Motorola 200 this weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin - round 14 of the CART FedEx Championship series.

SCOTT DIXON - # 18 POWERWARE PANASONIC PACWEST TOYOTA

"We ran very well in the morning session," said Dixon. "Then, this afternoon, we had a couple hours of downtime as my Powerware Panasonic crew changed my car over so we could run some new development pieces on the car. We were actually better in the morning and I don't think the new bits really helped out today - but we got the testing out of the way so we know how the car will handle with the newer components should we use them at another circuit. We still managed a pretty good time this afternoon, but we probably could have gotten more time out of the car had we not changed it over. It would have taken too much time to go back to our old set-up, so we stuck with it and actually learned a lot. I think it was a very productive test."

ALLEN MCDONALD - TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, PACWEST RACING GROUP

"Scott did really well today," said McDonald. "He got a lot out of his car and really liked the way things were going in the morning. Then we decided to test a few new components in the afternoon, but the results weren't what we were hoping they would be. We did get through a lot of things that we really needed to test, so from that standpoint the day was well spent. The time he put up was respectable compared to the other drivers, so it turned out to be a good day."

Text provided by Tom Hollett

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