MOTORSPORT: Bathurst on Indy champ’s bucket list

Five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (pictured) wants to “try a few different things” – including Bathurst. The Brisbane-born, US-based New Zealander says that, at 38, there are still a lot more things he wants to do in motorsport.

“Bathurst is one,” said Dixon, who – before his hugely-successful career in America – won the 1998 Australian Drivers’ Championship in what was then the Formula Holden open-wheeler series.

“I’d probably prefer to do the Bathurst 12 Hour in the GT spec.

“It would be very hard to jump into the Supercar forum and compete well in that. I’d like to do that in stages.”

Dixon told veteran US racing correspondent Marshall Pruett of Racer.com that dual Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso competing in the World Endurance Championship and racing at the Indianapolis 500 last year, and potentially again next year after he departs F1 (perhaps only temporarily), was evidence of how top drivers could diversify.

“The cross-platform [races] are quite difficult to achieve [with] schedules and sponsors, but Alonso has opened a lot of eyes in the fact that you can switch around a little bit,” Dixon said.

“He’s done a very good job. It’s not an easy thing. [But] He’s a huge talent and one of few that I would think would be able to pull it off. One day I hope to try a few different things.

Dixon finished on the Le Mans 24 GTE-Pro podium in a Ford GT -- like that which expatriate Australian Ryan Briscoe will demonstrate at next weekend’s Bathurst 1000.

“Winning that [24 Hours of Le Mans] outright would be tremendous, but [getting a seat in a] prototype is also very tough.

“Maybe an Xfinity race [NASCAR’s second tier below its Cup series]. I’d love to do a road course. There are definitely other things I’d like to do, but the reality is it’s not always the easiest to pull off.”

Apart from his IndyCar success with Chip Ganassi Racing, including winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2008, Dixon has twice won the 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race.

A film of Dixon’s life and success in Indy racing, Born Racer is soon to be released in the USA.

Daniel Ricciardo and teammate Max Verstappen, as well as the two drivers in Red Bull’s secondary F1 team, Toro Rosso, face grid penalties at this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.

Red Bull Racing will revert to Renault’s B-spec power unit rather than the more powerful C-spec that carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo and Verstappen used in Italy and Singapore.

There are concerns about the reliability of the C-spec and that it would not function as well at the upcoming high-altitude races in Mexico and Brazil, so RBR will wear grid penalties for using new B-spec units in Sochi.

“The C-spec has a bit more power in qualifying, but it’s the same or maybe a little bit slower in the race – the [energy] recovery is not as good,” Verstappen said.

Honda will introduce an upgraded power unit in the Toro Rossos at Sochi ahead of its home race at Suzuka in Japan next weekend.

The changes are mostly to the internal combustion engine and will mean grid penalties for Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley.

F1 sources suggest the latest Honda may have more power than either of Renault’s specs, but both makes will still be well short of Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes has won all four previous GPs in Sochi, although Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished only 0.6sec behind Merc driver Valtteri Bottas last year. Vettel trails fellow four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton by 40 points (Merc’s main man has 281 to Vettel’s 241) with five races remaining after Russia.

Ricciardo, who is switching to Renault’s factory team next season, is sixth this season with 126 points, while Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen has 174, Bottas 171 and Verstappen 148.

Red Bull has never finished better than fifth in Russia and Ricciardo has not been in the top six there, although he says the circuit has “grown on me”.

“It’s very flat and open. In some ways it feels like driving flat out in a car park, but it’s a surprisingly enjoyable lap,” Ricciardo stated.

“Apart from the long straight, there’s a lot going on and it’s a layout that keeps you thinking. It’s definitely grown on me and the track surface has also improved over the years.”

Formula E is resisting pressure to introduce four-wheel-drive on its third-generation electric open-wheelers.

FE’s Gen2 machinery with longer-life batteries, doing away with the need for mid-race car swaps, will debut in the category’s fifth season starting in Saudi Arabia on December 15 and will have a three-season life. But there has been a push from competing car companies (soon to include Mercedes and Porsche) for all-wheel drive in the Gen3 cars which will race from 2021-22.

“What is key is to keep the road relevance,” FE founder and chief executive Alejandro Agag told the Motorsport Leaders Business Forum in London.

“For generation three, one school of thought is four-wheel drive, another is ultra-fast charging [of batteries].

“For me it’s a very clear choice: the first four-wheel drive car was on the road in 1901, so somebody tell me where is the innovation with four-wheel drive? I don’t see it.

“Super-fast charging can change the world of electric cars. You [will be able to] go to the electric station, whatever you call it, and in two minutes your battery is full.

“That will be road relevant, so it’s very clear to me the roads we need to take and the roads we don’t need to take.

“It's not always so easy to explain to the big OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] who have super expertise on four-wheel drive,” Agag said.

Carrera Cup series leader Jaxon Evans will be Australia’s representative at this year’s Porsche Motorsport Junior Programme Shootout in France.

Evans, 22, a New Zealander based in Queensland, has had four wins and 11 top-two finishes in 17 races this year to lead the Carrera Cup by 62 points with rounds at Bathurst and the Gold Coast to go.

Evans is following the path of his mate Matt Campbell and hopes to emulate the international success with Porsche of the Queenslander as well as Kiwi countrymen Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley, both outright winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.