Ron's Letter from America - 7th Aug 08
This weekend we are at the Kentucky Speedway. Christina Orr will be making her debut in the latest round of the Firestone Indy Lights championship, the Kentucky 100. It’s great because she will be the fifth Kiwi to compete in the series this season ( including Wade & Mitch Cunningham, Marc Williams and Jonny Reid).
I’m looking forward to it because for the limited testing that she did two weeks ago at Kentucky she showed extraordinary confidence for her first time on an oval. She drove as though there were no walls around her which show s great self confidence.
I’ll be heading up their on Thursday (local time). It is only a couple of hours drive from home in Indianapolis. Scott’s (Dixon) also racing in the Indy Car Series and has always gone well there. There aren’t many rounds left in the IndyCar Series. In fact the next four rounds he has always done reasonably well in the past.
He’s won at Kentucky and Infineon. Was strong at Belle Isle last year until he spun and took out Franchitti and then Chicagoland was where he ran out of fuel and lost the championship to Franchitti on the last lap. (All for the sake of one cup of fuel.)
The difference is that this year he has points in the bag whereas last year he was playing catch up. And that’s the key to winning this years championship.
Practice and qualifying is on Friday (US time) with racing Saturday. More soon.
Ron Dixon is father to Indianapolis 500 winner and 2003 IndyCar champion Scott Dixon. This season nzracer.com follows Ron on his road trip around America with the Indycar Championship. Each week Ron will give us the insiders view from track side, pit lane and behind the scenes.
