Tomas Scheckter

Tomas Scheckter 2006

Scheckter at the Indianapolis 500 in 2009

Tomas Scheckter (born September 21, 1980 in Monte Carlo , Monaco ) is a former South African racing driver . He drove in the IndyCar Series from 2002 to 2011 . He is a son of Formula 1 world champion Jody Scheckter .

Career

Beginnings in motorsport

Scheckter began his motorsport career in karting in 1992 , where he was active until 1996. Among other things, he won the South African Kart Championship in 1995. In 1997 he made his formula racing debut in the South African Formula Ford . In 1998 he returned to Europe and finished third in the British Formula Vauxhall's junior series as the best newcomer . He also entered the winter championship of the British Formula Renault and finished this series in sixth place overall. In 1999 the South African competed in the Formula Opel Euroseries and won the championship with eight victories. He set a new record that had previously been held by Mika Häkkinen , Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard . Since the series was discontinued after the season, he was also the last title holder of the Formula Opel Euroseries. He also started in the last two races of the season, the Euro Open by Nissan . In the first race he managed to beat the future champion Fernando Alonso and win the race. In his second race he finished second behind Alonso.

In 2000, Scheckter moved to the British Formula 3 championship for Paul Stewart Racing . With two victories he finished second in the championship ahead of his teammate Narain Karthikeyan and was only defeated by Antonio Pizzonia . In addition, he started in two races each of the French Formula 3 championship and the Italian Formula 3000 , in which he finished tenth overall. He finished third at the prestigious Formula 3 Masters in Zandvoort . He also made his debut in the international Formula 3000 championship and competed in the last four races of the 2000 season . The South African broke Stéphane Sarrazin at McLaren -Juniorenteam MySap.com from. His teammate was Tomáš Enge . At the Hockenheimring , the two racing drivers, led by Enge, scored a double victory for MySap.com. Scheckter was 13th in the drivers' championship.

In 2001, Scheckter was initially contracted by Jaguar Racing as a Formula 1 test driver. After he was caught with a prostitute in his company car, he was released in May. He then received a cockpit at Vergani Racing in the Open Telefónica by Nissan , the former Euro Open by Nissan. The South African won four races and was runner-up behind Franck Montagny . He also competed in a Euro Formula 3000 race and took part in an international Formula 3000 race as a representative for David Saelens at European Minardi F3000 .

IndyCar Series

In 2002 Scheckter moved to the North American Indy Racing League and received a cockpit at Red Bull Cheever Racing . Scheckter led the Indianapolis 500 for 85 laps, but retired after an accident. Although he achieved pole positions and fastest lap times, he fell out of favor with his team principal and teammate Eddie Cheever , as he only crossed the finish line three times after the first ten races and destroyed his car too often. Cheever wanted to replace Scheckter with Buddy Rice for the race in Brooklyn , but had to use him due to his contract. However, Cheever gave Rice better equipment and mechanics. Nevertheless, Scheckter managed to beat Rice in this race and he won his first race in the Indy Racing League before his teammate. Ironically, Cheever dropped out of this race after an accident. After another race, Scheckter left Cheever Racing and finished 14th overall at the end of the season.

In 2003 , the South African stayed in the racing series, which has since been renamed the IndyCar Series , and competed for Chip Ganassi Racing as Scott Dixon's teammate . While Dixon won the championship title, Scheckter was ranked third in Brooklyn Sieber. At the Indianapolis 500 he achieved his best result so far in this race with a fourth place. In 2004 he switched to Panther Racing . As the best driver of his team, he finished the season with a fifth place as the best result, the 19th place overall. In 2005 he stayed with Panther Racing. Tomáš Enge, with whom Scheckter had already driven in Formula 3000, was his team-mate this season. The South African won his second IndyCar Series win in Fort Worth . With two more podium finishes, he finished the season in ninth place in the championship and left Enge, who was 16th, well behind.

After Scheckter had taken part in four A1 Grand Prix races in winter 2005/2006 , he switched to Vision Racing in the 2006 IndyCar Series season . With a third place as the best result, he finished tenth in the drivers' championship as the best driver of his team. In 2007 the South African could not show a podium finish, but he remained the best Vision driver and finished the season in tenth place overall.

Despite his performance, he did not receive a cockpit for the entire season for the 2008 IndyCar Series season. With the new Luczo Dragon Racing team , he finally took part in six races, of which he was only able to finish one. In the overall standings he was 31st. 2009 Luczo Dragon Racing contested the entire season. However, not Scheckter, but Raphael Matos was signed. The South African eventually took part in the Indianapolis 500 for Dale Coyne Racing , and then competed in a total of ten races for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing . In the overall ranking, he took 20th place. For the 2010 season , Scheckter initially had no cockpit. He returned to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the Indianapolis 500. Since Mike Conway , who was a regular driver at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing this season, was seriously injured in this race, the South African competed in three more races for the team as a substitute. Towards the end of the season he was also given a cockpit for two races at Conquest Racing . At the end of the season he finished 29th overall. In 2011 , Scheckter took part in two races, including the Indianapolis 500, for SH Racing , who are preparing the car together with another team. He finished the Indianapolis 500 in eighth place. He also took part in a race for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing as a substitute for the injured Justin Wilson and started at the season finale for Sarah Fisher Racing . He finished the season in 32nd place in the drivers' championship.

Personal

Tomas Scheckter comes from a racing family. His father Jody Scheckter won in 1979 , the Formula 1 World Championship . His uncle Ian Scheckter was also active in Formula 1. His older brother Toby and his cousin Jaki are also racing drivers.

statistics

Career stations

1992–1996: karting 1997: South African Formula Ford 1998: British Formula Vauxhall , Junior Series (3rd place) 1998: British Formula Renault , winter series (6th place) 1999: Formula Opel Euroseries (champion) 1999: Euro Open by Nissan (12th place) 2000: British Formula 3 (2nd place) 2000 : Formula 3000 (13th place)

2000: Italian Formula 3000 (10th place) 2001: Open Telefónica by Nissan (2nd place) 2001 : Formula 3000 2001: Euro Formula 3000 2001 : Formula 1 (test driver) 2002 : Indy Racing League (14th place) 2003 : IndyCar Series (7th place) 2004 : IndyCar Series (19th place)

2005 : IndyCar Series (9th place) 2006 : IndyCar Series (10th place) 2007 : IndyCar Series (10th place) 2008 : IndyCar Series (31st place) 2009 : IndyCar Series (20th place) 2010 : IndyCar Series (29th place) 2011 : IndyCar Series (32nd place)

Individual results in the IndyCar Series

season	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	Points	rank
2002	Red Bull Cheever Racing	HMS 6	PHX 24	FON 24	NZR 21	INDY 26	TXS 17	PPI 16	RIR 4	CAN 15	NSH 13	MIS 1	KTY 22	STL	CHI	TX2					210	14th
2003	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	HMS 8	PHX 15	MOT 16	INDY 4	TXS 18	PPI 8	RIR 18	CAN 9	NSH 10	MIS 3	STL 4	KTY 10	NZR 19	CHI 5	FON 5	TX2 15				356	7th
2004	Panther Racing	HMS 5	PHX 16	MOT 13	INDY 18th	TXS 20	RIR 17	CAN 15	NSH 19	MIL 21	MIS 19	KTY 22	PPI 17	NZR 13	CHI 19th	FON 15	TX2 18				230	19th
2005	Panther Racing	HMS 11	PHX 17	STP 17	MOT 10	INDY 20th	TXS 1 *	RIR 4	KAN 5	NSH 17	MIL 3	MIS 3	KTY 21	PPI 14	SNM 16	CHI 4	WGL 20	FON 7 *			390	9.
2006	Vision racing	HMS 9	STP 12	MOT 13	INDY 27	WGL 10	TXS 10	RIR 7	KAN 7	NSH 15	MIL 3	MIS 5	KTY 7	SNM 17	CHI 10						298	10.
2007	Vision racing	HMS 8	STP 6	MOT 9	KAN 5	INDY 7	MIL 17	TXS 14	IOW 19	RIR 7	WGL 13	NSH 11	MDO 9	MIS 11	KTY 5	SNM 8	DET 13	CHI 20th			357	10.
2008	Luczo Dragon Racing	HMS	STP	MOT 1	LBH 1	CAN 23	INDY 24	Mil	TXS 25	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM 27	DET 21	CHI 26	SRF 2	66	31.
2009	Dale Coyne Racing	STP	LBH	KAN	INDY 12					WGL				MDO	SNM						195	20th
	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing					MIL 13	TXS 13	IOW 6	RIR 11		GATE 16	EDM 19	KTY 22			CHI 8	MOT 23	HMS 9
2010	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	SAO	STP	ALA	LBH	KAN	INDY 15th	TXS 13	IOW	WGL	GATE 15	EDM 19	MDO	SNM			MOT	HMS			89	29
	Conquest Racing														CHI 28	KTY 14
2011	SH Racing	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY 8	TXS1	TXS2	Mil	IOW	GOAL	EDM	MDO		SNM	BAL 22	MOT	KTY			52	32.
	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing													NHA 23
	Sarah Fisher Racing																		LSV C

( Legend )

¹ The races took place on the same day.

² No points were awarded.

Web links

Commons : Tomas Scheckter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tomas Scheckter at the Driver Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "The unmasking of a moral apostle" (faz.net on April 5, 2008)
2. ^ "Mark Blundell soon to be a Jaguar test driver?" (Motorsport-Total.com on July 6, 2001)
3. ↑ "Scheckter drives the Indy 500" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 25, 2010)
4. ↑ “Scheckter to fill in for injured Conway” ( Memento of the original from February 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Indycar.com on June 3, 2010) 
5. ^ "Chicagoland: Scheckter for Conquest" (Motorsport-Total.com on August 26, 2010)
6. ↑ "Scheckter in the Indy 500" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 30, 2011)
7. ↑ "Scheckter also in Baltimore" (Motorsport-Total.com on August 11, 2011)
8. ↑ "IndyCar - Wilson is out the rest of the season" (Motorsport-Magazin.com on August 10, 2011)
9. ↑ “Scheckter all in with Sarah Fisher Racing” ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (indycar.com on September 26, 2011)