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INDY LIGHTS: Dixon wins round eight in the Dayton Indy Lights Championship

4 September 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

VANCOUVER, British Columbia- Scott Dixon (Invensys/Powerware/PacWest Lights Lola) has built his largest points lead of the season with his fourth win of the year Sunday in the Dayton Indy Lights Championship race at the Molson Indy Vancouver. Dixon passed pole-sitter Felipe Giaffone (Hollywood Lola) on the 36th of 42 laps and won by 7.845 seconds. Giaffone finished second while rookie Jeff Simmons (KOOL Lola) finished third.

Giaffone, who won his second pole of the season with a new track record of 95.040 mph (67.462 seconds) in Saturday's final qualifying session, led from the start but was never able to shake outside front-row starter Dixon. Giaffone bobbled entering the longest straight on the 1.781-mile track on lap 36 which allowed Dixon to move in for the pass. Dixon took to the outside as they entered Turn Six, a right-hander at the end of the straight, and made the move stick.

Dixon now had a 21 point lead over nearest challenger Townsend Bell (DirecPC Lola), 113 - 92, who finished fourth at Vancouver. His championship lead is his biggest since leaving Round 3 in Detroit in June 20 points ahead of the competition. Dixon's other wins came at Long Beach, Milwaukee, and Chicago.

Dixon's race winning average speed was slowed by three caution periods, including two within the span of the first five laps for separate contact incidents in Turn 1. Chris Menninga (Mi-Jack Lola) slid into Jason Bright (Dorricott Racing Lola) and Andy Boss heading into the first corner at the race start while Luis Diaz (Quaker State Lola) and Jonny Kane (KOOL Lola) came together in the same turn on lap five. All drivers were uninjured but only Bright was able to continue on and posted a 14th place finish, more than a dozen laps off the lead pace.

The day's final caution was for the debris from Rolando Quintanilla (Telmex/Prodigy Internet Lola) who continued to the pits after knocking the front wings off his race car after wall contact. Quintanilla finished 13th, three laps down.

Mario Dominguez (Herdez/Pegaso/Quaker State Lola) finished fifth.

* Quotes

Scott Dixon (Invensys/Powerware/PacWest Lights Lola) - "Today was a huge victory points wise. It was great racing with Felipe. He gave me plenty of room. He made a mistake on the start of the straight and I was able to make a move on the outside in Turn 6. I wasn't planning on passing on the outside, but I'll take what I can get. There are still a few races left, so I need to stay focused and aggressive to remain in the points lead. It's definitely not over yet, but I'm happy about the position I'm in now at this stage of the championship."

Felipe Giaffone (Hollywood Lola) - "Scott did a great job. I knew that turn six was the place that he could overtake me so I was trying to be really careful coming out of turn five. From the middle of the race on, the car got really hard to drive. It was like driving on ice and I made a little mistake and that was enough for Scott to get a good draft and pass me on the outside."

Jeff Simmons (Team KOOL Green Lola) - "I had a few decent runs on Scott and Felipe going down the back straight. Scott was running a bit more downforce than me so it made it tough to close up enough in turn 1 to be close enough to get a run on the back straight, so he always had a bit of gap when we got to the spot. I had a couple of runs but was just never close enough to make a move."

Townsend Bell (Dorricott Racing/DirecPC Lola) - "We scored points but you have to turn the clock back to qualifying and look at what could have been. If I would have had a clean lap on sticker tires and had a better qualifying time I would have had a better chance at moving up. This isn't a good track for passing so I knew I'd have to be lucky through front-runner attrition or else pick up a spot or two on the race start. I was able to slip inside Jonny Kane at the start but that it for my passing. For whatever reason, I didn't have the straight-away speed I needed to mount a challenge on Simmons or Dixon. I only caught Simmons when he made a mistake and he didn't make many. I pressured him but he ran a solid race. I'm happy to score double-digit points and move on to Laguna Seca."

* Special Awards

Dayton Tire Awards: Rudy Junco receives four Dayton Daytona racing tires as the Move to the Front award recipient. Junco improved five positions to finish in ninth place. Jeff Simmons receives two Dayton Daytona racing tires as the Dayton Rookie Award recipient as the highest finishing first-year driver. Felipe Giaffone receives a pair of Dayton Daytona racing tires as the fast qualifier.

MCI Worldcom Fast Pace Award: Scott Dixon receives the $1,000 MCI WorldCom Fast Pace Award for his fast lap of 1:07.439 seconds (95.073 mph) on lap 40.

Nation's Cup: New Zealand closed the gap on The United States to 10 points. United States has 123 points while Brazil sits in third with 83 poiints.

Racing for Kids Award: Scott Dixon wins the Racing for Kids Award of $500. An additional $1,500 will be presented to a local children's hospital in Scott's name.

Text Provided By Adam Saal

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