One Victory Brings Another for Dixon

Scott Dixon took care of all the business all at once Sunday at California Speedway, winning the Indy Lights season championship by winning the race.

The New Zealand driver dominated the 100-mile race over the two-mile superspeedway--a preliminary to the rained-out champ car Marlboro 500--leading all but two of the 50 laps, then thwarted a last-lap pass by Townsend Bell at the start-finish line, finishing a nose ahead of Bell in the race, and nine points ahead of him in the series.

In the competitive sort of race that has been the hallmark of the Indy Lights on the Fontana track--passes galore and cars racing three and four abreast--Dixon averaged 183.672 mph and swept all the points available to him after he had missed one in Saturday’s qualifying by not winning the pole position. He scored 20 points for winning and a bonus point for leading the most laps, giving him 155 for the season.

Bell, the series rookie of the year from Costa Mesa, started the race four points behind Dixon and earned 16 for his second-place finish, ending the season with 146.

Casey Mears of Bakersfield, the other driver with a shot at the title, finished fourth in the race for open-wheel Lola cars powered by stock-block V-6 engines and third in the standings with 141 points.

Dixon put himself in the lead on the second lap, passing pole sitter Felipe Giaffone of Brazil, then stayed there for 36 laps while PacWest teammate Tony Renna ran second, discouraging challengers. While that was going on, however, Bell was working his way through the field, having started 15th, and from third place, made a run at the Dixon-Renna tandem.

Giaffone, running fourth, went with him and got all the better of it, passing both Bell and Renna, then getting Dixon on the next lap,

That didn’t last, though, Dixon repassing Giaffone a lap later, Bell moving into second and tucking himself solidly into Dixon’s draft.

“I knew, based on the times I popped out of the draft going into Turn 1, that I didn’t have the oomph I needed [to pass Dixon], so I knew I was going to have to try to slingshot past Scott on the last lap,” Bell said.

So when they came out of Turn 4 on Lap 50, Bell broke the draft, dropped his car low on the track and hoped for the best.

It didn’t happen because Dixon was anticipating the maneuver, dropped low himself and forced Bell’s car onto the track apron, well below the white line defining racing territory.

“Coming out of 4, [Bell] was pretty tight, and I didn’t think he’d get much of a run from where he was on the track,” Dixon said. “I saw him come down low so I went a little lower.”

Meanwhile, Herdez teammates Luis Diaz and Mario Dominguez, both of Mexico, tangled in a spectacular--but injury-free--accident behind them.