A foundation pupil at Kamo High School, as well as an original member of the Northland Car Club, Ron Dixon spent the opening decades of his life growing up in Whangarei.
No stranger to burning tyre tracks and flinging gravel around the sweeping roads of Northland in his time, Dixon admits it's clear a love of motorsport rubbed off on his four-time IndyCar champion son.
"I think that's why we have such good drivers, because of the roads we grew up on," Dixon said. "It makes you so proud, I've got such a great family."
Yet to speak to his champion son amid all the media hype and celebration, Dixon said his wife Glenys, Scott's mother, had managed to speak to him briefly.
"My wife said he is in total disbelief," Dixon said.
"When he radioed in after he'd won the race at Sonoma he said 'where are we at? Have we won it? - he didn't even know at that stage that he'd won the championship."
Another person in disbelief of Scott's win was his grandmother Edna Bryant.
A keen follower of his progress each season, Bryant got up early to watch a race earlier this year, however, she took a fall and broke her pelvis.
Making amends for the incident in time for her 95th birthday, Ron Dixon said Bryant would remember her grandson's recent championship win forever. "He rang her just before the race, just before he got on the grid," Dixon said.
"She's 28kg, there's nothing to her but she's still very sharp up top. It could be the last birthday and with him winning the next day, she's still buzzing."
Though Scott's parents were expecting him to return to New Zealand for Christmas this year, Dixon said his star son would not make the Northland Car Club's 60th Anniversary this month.
