Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Dixon makes run for record books at Kansas

Wednesday, July 2, 2003 | 9:04 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

With back-to-back victories to his credit, Scott Dixon can match an Indy Racing League record by winning Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway.

But Dixon, a 22-year-old New Zealander, said he has turned his attention from records to a championship as the IndyCar Series approaches the halfway point in its season. Dixon trails series leader Tony Kanaan by 27 points going into Sunday's Kansas Indy 300.

"Early in the season, you can go out there and try to win every race," said Dixon, who has three victories in the first seven races. "This series, you look at it, it seems like consistency pays a lot better. That's what Tony has done; he has won a race and he's probably been top five every other except for Motegi and he just really started to pull away from everybody in the points chase.

"I think that's what we've got to look at -- being a lot more consistent. We've had three wins but we've had three or four DNFs, which is where we're hurting. I think we'll basically just race for points as opposed to really dominate and take chances."

Although it may not have been his strategy to dominate Saturday's rain-shortened SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway, he became the first driver IRL driver to lead every lap of a race in winning the race from the pole. He also set a series record for most consecutive laps led over two races by leading the last 84 laps at Pikes Peak International Raceway and all 206 laps in Richmond.

"Records are always nice to break or to have (but) the only thing we want to do this year is win the championship," Dixon said. "If we break a lot of records on the way to doing that, that would be great."

Tracy, a Las Vegas resident and avid cyclist, will lead the procession in a CART pace vehicle. Tracy often previews courses on which he is about to race by riding around them on his bicycle.

The event, titled "PT200" is open to all cyclists over the age of 13, but only the first 200 to register at PT200@cart.com will make the cut.

"I know the experience we had racing at night in Milwaukee several weeks ago was a lot of fun but there are a whole new set of variables with night racing in Cleveland -- is the setting sun going to be a factor on that first turn, for instance?" Carpentier said. "Fortunately, we'll have some practices to get used to the conditions."

His victory last year at Cleveland was Carpentier's first on a road course and first of two that season.

"I got a lot of satisfaction from Team Player's victory there last year ... especially because getting a victory in Cleveland is a bit like winning the marathon," Carpentier said. "There are so many things to deal with, like going from a bumpy surface to a flat one, staying focused mentally and maintaining your physical stamina under the extremely hot temperatures in the cockpit."

It was Kinser's 13th main-event victory of the season. Lasoski finished ninth in Friday's prelim and third in Saturday's main.