Will Scott Dixon reach the very, very top?
Let's for a moment look at Motor racing over the last thirty years
and which individual drivers make it in Formula One and who doesn't,
and really what is the main ingredient for getting started or not.
Think about it, almost without exception, every top driver has
received solid and unwavering parental support (push) from a very early
age. And with really enthusiastic parents surely it starts from the
cradle! Scott Dixon is certainly no different. So you consider that
unfair?
Sure it is, by the very nature of motor sport, requiring such
expensive equipment demands that the initial support must be supplied.
But that's life, and indeed that is the way it is in any form of Motor
Sport (other than Karts) and in fact probably more than any other
pursuit that a child could pursue, that's for sure.
So that upsets you? and want to change that? Well either take up
kart racing , athletics, tennis or swimming or even mountain climbing
where you don't need such expensive equipment. Just think of any
example you wish over the last two or three decades.
Chris Amon racing at the age of 15 and booting around a fully fledged F1 car at the age of seventeen.
Bruce McLaren started racing his father's small Austin seven from an even younger age.
Keki Rosberg in karts from his early teens.
Nigel Mansell in karts from a similar age.
The great Jim Clark, with friends from his local village willing
to let him race their sporty cars - albeit he was a little older.
Jackie Stewart who's family ran a Motor Company in Scotland racing a family E Type Jaguar, starting in club events.
In fact try and find any one of the great drivers who were able to
make it without that support from an early age . Perhaps the great
Fangio ?
Let's go back to the Sixties with the example of both the Mexican
Rodrigues brothers Pedro and Riccardo, who both had a good start in
motor circles, and then cars at something like 14 or 15 years of age !
Believe me not many could lay claim to starting to race on the circuit
at such an early age. New Zealand born Scott Dixon did and set out on
his career in Motor Sport. At the age of thirteen, yes thirteen, after
a number of years in kart racing, he set out on his first season,
starting in Formula Vee at a National meeting, on the New Zealand Grand
Prix track at Pukekohe.
A rather 'gutless' formula but still necessary to be smooth and
consistent. Did he win? No, but it was a close thing from that very
first outing. From that first event he seemed to be having , of all
things, believe it or not in a formula Vee!!, gearbox problems! as he
would catch the two or three leaders and start to climb all over them
and then struggle with gears and then drop back. His aggressive and
confident approach was apparent and showed the moment the flag went
down and the race started! He clearly was unwilling and in fact totally
dissatisfied with any thing less than a first place and a win! A sure
sign of a winner.
I think he finished 2-3rd in the first race.
The final race of the day set out and once again he was
desperately trying to pass drivers two or three times his age, only
with a rather desperate move by trying to go around the outside of the
fast right hand sweeper after the Pits. This is not a move to be
tackled lightly. Who tangled with who? doesn't really matter, it was
his reaction to this whole thing that in my opinion marked him as a
winner and signaled that this kid was going to the very top. Arrogance
? maybe but as drivers and others gathered around stressed and worried,
including family, to see the damaged car, apart from being a little red
in the face he just just stood there very calm and relaxed as if
nothing had happened!
Sure he didn't have to pay for it, sure he didn't have to fix it!
