An emotional victory for Scott Dixon in America and success for the Supercars home heroes in New Zealand – your weekend motorsport wrap-up. IndyCar Scott Dixon drove an incredible race to win the renown IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, dedicating the victory to Sir Colin Giltrap who passed away last week. Giltrap was a huge supporter and backer of Dixon early in his career, enabling him to take those first steps towards what is now one of the greatest IndyCar careers of all time.

Dixon started the race in P9, but some brave strategy calls including an early pitstop saw him climb to the front with a tyre advantage.

After both rounds of pit-stops were complete, Dixon came under pressure from Josef Newgarden as he was forced to fuel-save on older tyres.

Contact behind Dixon between Newgarden and Colton Herta would offer the Kiwi a brief reprieve, but Herta would quickly take Newgarden’s place, putting pressure on Dixon right to the line, with Dixon finishing just a second clear of the American.

Supercars

Andre Heimgartner achieved what all Kiwi Supercars drivers dream of when he took a home win in the first race of the weekend in Taupo.

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Incredibly wet conditions set the stage for a chaotic opener, and the drivers didn’t disappoint. Spins and overtakes galore meant that it wasn’t clear who would take the checkered flag first for much of the race.

Ultimately it was those who kept their cool and their car on the tarmac who benefitted. Heimgartner faced pressure from Will Davison right to the end of the race, but kept calm and drove a dominant race, finishing with a 1.1 second lead. Ryan Wood finished P4, tantalizingly close to his first Supercars podium, while Matt Payne crossed the line in P13 after a troubled race.

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For Race 2, Payne was seeking redemption for his tough race the day before and stormed to his second ever pole position in qualifying to the delight of his home crowd. Unfortunately, he would be unable to convert this to the win after his tyres fell away from him in the race, leading to a P4 finish. Heimgartner had a stormer of a race, climbing five positions to finish P6, with Ryan Wood ending the weekend by crossing the line in P10.

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia

Marco Giltrap had a tricky weekend at home as Porsche Carrera Cup Australia raced in New Zealand for the first time.

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Qualifying P11 for Race 1, Giltrap would climb two positions before the chequered flag and finish P9 with some decent points. Sunday’s first race would end in a DNF for the young Kiwi, but the final race of the weekend would see Giltrap overtake five cars with no shortage of heroics to climb from P15 to P10 by the end of the race.

World Endurance Championship

There were middling results for Kiwis racing in WEC this weekend at the 6 Hours of Imola.

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In qualifying, the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing hybrid of Brendon Hartley put in a time good enough for P8, while the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R piloted by Earl Bamber managed P12.

The race ran relatively drama free for the two entries, until rain in the latter stages of the race led to strategy jeopardy as teams gambled on when to transition to wet tyres.

At the end of the 6 Hours, Hartley’s car would finish three places better than their starting position in P5, while Bamber would climb to positions to finish in P10.

NASCAR

Shane van Gisbergen pulled double duties this weekend at the famous Talladega Super Speedway, as he took on both the Xfinity and Cup series events.

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Still acclimatising to the driving style of these ultra-fast oval events, SVG wouldn’t quite get the results he was after in either race.

Qualifying for Xfinity ended with SVG securing a P18 start, while in Cup series he placed a time good enough for P17 – faster than his Kaulig Racing teammate.

The Xfinity race would prove to be a rollercoaster for the Kiwi, running in the top-10 for most of the race, claiming points in the first-stage, and even leading mid-race. Unfortunately though, he would run out of fuel in the dying stages of the race, relegating his #97 car to finish in P22.

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In the Cup series race, SVG ran with the mid-field for most of the outing. As the race began to wind down, SVG took a risk by moving to the outside of the oval and forming a new line. This outside line seemed to be gaining momentum, but just as it was sliding up the field, two drivers decided move out ahead of SVG and slow the entire queue of cars down, leaving them to slide back down the field to an eventual P28 finish for SVG.