JULY 27, 2004

Dixon in the wars

One-time Formula 1 hopeful Scott Dixon had to sit out the Indy Racing Laegue event on Sunday after two accidents on Saturday left him with chipped bone in his thumb and a badly sprained ankle. Both of the impacts were around 90G. The Target Chip Ganassi Racing team ran only one car in the Milwaukee event and Darren Manning finished off a dreadful weekend for the team when he crashed. Dixon is the defending IRL Champion but he is nowhere in the points standings this year. The race was won by Andretti Green Racing's Dario Franchitti, joining the team's other drivers Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon with victories this year. The team has now won six of the nine races this year. The win was an important one for Franchitti and his first since a motorcycle accident left him with back injuries and rumours that he might be planning to retire. It was also an important win because it showed that he can be competitive on ovals, his previous 11 wins in the old CART series coming almost exclusively on road course. His own oval victory was at Rockingham in England in 2002.

It is worth noting that the IRL event at Milwaukee was a big success with a crowd far in excess of that attracted in June when the Champ Cars visited the track. That event drew a crowd of 25,000, the IRL cars pulled in nearly 38,000.