Motorsport: Holder hopes for fast car and lady luck

Scott Dixon waits for practice to begin at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier this week. Photo / AP

An interesting question to ponder; is it harder to actually attain something you desperately want, or more difficult to keep someone's mitts from snatching it away from you after you've got it?

Defending Indianapolis 500 champion New Zealander Scott Dixon is about to find out this weekend just how hard it is to keep pretenders to his throne at bay.

You could say the most successful Kiwi IRL driver has got two monkeys off his back, and a collective New Zealand one as well. The talented open-wheel driver has ticked his two troublesome motor racing boxes - winning both a series championship (2003 and 2008) and triumphing in one of the most sought-after motorsport events in the world - the Indy 500.

By winning at the iconic American single seater race last year, Dixon completed a rare feat for a country with a rich heritage in motorsport - the Triple Crown. A Kiwi has won the Monaco Grand Prix, the 24 Hours Le Mans and now the Indianapolis 500.

After a less than auspicious start to the 2009 IndyCar season, where Dixon finished 16th and 15th in his first two races as defending series champion, things took a turn for the better at Kansas.

Back on an oval for the first time this year, Dixon showed to all and sundry he's still a force to be reckoned with by winning in the lead up to the Indy 500.

"Most of the time at the Speedway there's five or six cars that have a good shot at it," said Dixon. "A little bit of lady luck comes into it but you've still got to have a fast car. Pit stops and strategy play a big part of it, just like any race really.

"But there's more emphasis on this race and more cars have had more track time and are probably better set up for this one race and that's what makes it so difficult to win."

After putting the car on pole last year, you'd expect Dixon to be a little miffed with having to look at the gearbox housings of the three cars in front of him on the first row. Trying as much as he could, Dixon had to settle for a second-row fifth on the grid.

"Come race day it doesn't really matter where you qualify. It's much harder to win from pole than any other position, as it's been done so few times but obviously you want to be the quickest.

"It was such a frustrating day actually, because the car had signs of speed but the few times we did the attempts we just didn't get it right. We were just over a tenth of a second off second spot and it pissed me off a little bit."

Although not as happy as he'd like to be with qualifying, Dixon is well aware car set-up for pole is quite different from that come race day. It's the same at every race meeting, as qualifying is more a sprint, and the race itself is bit more about endurance.

"It's a massive change from qualifying to race day. So far we've been the quickest out of all race set-up cars, so I'm pretty comfortable about that. We should be looking pretty decent on the day."

There haven't been any huge changes to the cars since last season, well none obvious to the naked eye anyway - however, for the drivers things are a bit different. "The exhaust exits have changed and have messed with the rear wing a lot more than it used to," said Dixon. "But the biggest change is the wheel base of the car. It's longer than normal and we've never really run too much of that and it changes your weight distribution, your springs and dampeners and a few other things. So last year's data is helpful but we still have to fine-tune."

Dixon's parting comment was he hoped the race wouldn't be a silly one where the weather, or anything else, came into play. He's looking forward to a good old straight-out race where he reckons he's in with a better than fair chance to defend his title.