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Scott Dixon's father Ron watching the final race from the pit bay - Source: ONE Sport -
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This is it race day and yep you guessed it another hot one in Miami and the same forecast as the last few days.
Quite bizarre as you watch the morning news on television and see it is snowing in Denver and the upper parts of the country and meanwhile down here we are sweating beyond belief.
Big day for the drivers. They had a end of season photo shoot at 11am and a few other PR things to attend to and then the big wait until the race with tension building.
I spoke with ex pat Kiwi Tony Cotman who is the VP of Operations for the League and he rates Dixon's race chances very highly.
He is a man that can feel a good thing but as we now know it became something different on the track .
No one can ever say anything wrong about Scott, he was the man for most of the race. Respect this guy New Zealand, he still has a massive future in front of him and everyone up here knows it.
Indy Car Series news expect the series to announce a full series sponsor in the next two weeks. This is a pretty major thing in these uncertain times and shows the strength this series has and is getting - and when you see races like today it certainly is one of the best series in the world with the best drivers as well.
On the track
First up on the track is the three-hour season ending for the Grand Am Sports cars featuring that steamy doctor himself Patrick Dempsey driving his Porsche. Have to admit did not watch that much of this but it was good to see some sports cars in action - the interesting thing was the fact they used half the oval the Indy Cars run on and an infield road course.
Why interesting you may ask? Well the rubber the cars left actually only effect about half of the oval and I heard several people mention the difference in grip levels.
Race time drew and Ron Dixon and I marched out to pit lane together - the heat soaking us in sweat and the tension did not help either.
We checked out the many sights on the gird before the race mainly as a way of reliving the tension a little. From there it was to the Target Chip Ganassi pit bay or more importantly car 9's bay.
We walked around in circles looking at each other for most of the race and I do have to thank them for letting me watch the race with them - Ron, Glenys, Emma and Team Target; what a great bunch of people.
The race was awesome and anyone who thinks otherwise really does not give these guys credit in what they do. Think about this for a moment - 36c and 67% humidity and 220 mph for over 90 minutes and that might just get your attention.
Scott in action
Scott drove a great race and pushed Ryan all the way (they had to for those important bonus points) and the quick thinking Chip moved Dario to a fuel saving race.
It really was not until lap 190 that Ron and me thought Scott was out of it and that last stop said it all - Briscoe doing the same thing and with only a short time left (10 laps) it was Championship honours to Dario.
Some quick facts on the race: it became the only race in league history to go green all the way and featured only three cars on the lead lap in the end and just one point between second and third 605 v 604. Ryan certainly must be thinking of Japan right now.
Now a good one for you before I sign off from Miami - it's the tenth day of the tenth month and car ten won the race and it was the Target Teams tenth win of the season.
So long from Miami.
Dave Turner
