until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Four-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon says he wants to avoid a “slippery slope” of playing for hours on his sim, as he competes in the series’ iRacing Challenge.
Dixon made his iRacing debut at the second round of the series at Barber Motorsports Park, where he finished 16th after a spin ruined a potential top 10 finish, before he exited early after being caught up in the startling pile-up in the next race at Michigan.
But last weekend Dixon emerged as a contender at Motegi, where he was the last person to win in the real-life IndyCar series in 2011 – albeit on the venue’s road course as opposed to the oval used in the iRacing event.
He said that although it has been “fun so far”, he doesn’t want to spend “hours on end” practicing like some of his competitors. Simon Pagenaud – who Dixon fought for victory at Motegi – recently admitted to spending five hours per day on his sim.
“It’s very time-consuming,” said Dixon. “I think it’s going to be very easy to fall into the slippery slope of wanting to do more. I’m kind of having to do my ‘honey do list’ to get credits going on the sim.
“That’s been working out. Finally took the beer holder off my sim, starting to get a little more serious…
“I’m not sure I want to spend hours on end downstairs. It’s been a lot of fun so far. A day like this shows if you put some effort in you can race with some really good guys.
“I was saying to Will [Power, third at Motegi] earlier, two corners are easier than what we have coming up next week [using the Austin track].
“It will be pretty tough and interesting to see. I think you’ll see the iRacing pros that put in the time will be really sound next week.”
Dixon dived down the inside of Pagenaud – winner of the last two races – on the last lap but couldn’t work his way past to give Chip Ganassi Racing a first iRacing Challenge victory.
However, Dixon admitted he didn’t actually know the two were on the last lap when he tried that pass.
“I was running for a spectacular finish there,” added Dixon. “I didn’t realise it was the last lap. I thought we were still racing, man.
“Seems like I need to start realising things a lot more.”
