Indy Racing League is tough. Ask Tomas Scheckter. But the driving hasn’t been the difficult part for the South African. That came in the pits.
Scheckter (21) arrived in Indy racing in a blaze of glory. During pre-season testing he outpaced everyone — including the man who became his team boss, former Grand Prix driver Eddie Cheever — by lapping at almost 360kph in his first outing on a banked oval track. Cheever snapped up the son of 1979 Formula One champion Jody Scheckter to be his number two driver in the Nissan Infiniti-powered Red Bull Cheever racing team.
But in the first race of the season Scheckter blotted his copybook. On the third lap he collided with Cheever and put him out of the race. Scheckter finished sixth.
Cheever wasn’t very gracious about it: “A rookie driver is like a new electronic gadget. You buy it, you can’t get it to work and then you don’t know if you should return it for a refund or take the time to read the instructions.” And that set the tone for the rest of the season.
The relationship between Scheckter and his boss worsened. Mid-season Cheever brought in a third driver and Scheckter found himself being sidelined. His pit crew was given to newcomer Buddy Rice. His car was cannibalised of its extra special go-fast bits, which were fitted to Rice’s car. In July he went out and won in Michigan, after taking pole position and posting the fastest lap in what became the second-fastest race in Indy racing history. Cheever crashed early, and finished 22nd. Rice came second.
The end came a month later, when Cheever announced that Scheckter had decided not to compete in the 13th race of the season. “After not showing for a scheduled technical briefing we called and were informed by Tomas that he was not going to participate. He did not offer any further details.”
So why did it all go wrong? Cheever has had his say, while Scheckter has remained tight-lipped. We phoned him at his home in Indianapolis to get his side of the story.
“I feel we were driven by the wrong motives,” he says. “With Cheever the whole situation revolved around how much money he could make. He put so much pressure on me not to crash — he was shitting on me every weekend telling me he was going to get rid of me. I went through a lot of verbal torment.”
Scheckter says one of the problems was that Cheever wouldn’t communicate with him. “In Michigan, I remember going up to him between practice sessions. I’d found out that they’d taken performance parts off my car without my knowledge and fitted them to the others. I was distraught — I’d worked my ass off the whole year developing the car, and this new kid comes in and gets all this treatment. I felt betrayed. I went to Eddie and told him that taking my crew was one thing, but not my performance parts as well.” Cheever refused to discuss it.
So how did it feel to take pole position, set the fastest lap and win that race? “I had to focus and do a job. My dad always says that when the flag drops, the bullshit stops. I led more laps than anybody else and I won the race. The problem was I felt like I’d won for the wrong team.”
Safety also became a big issue when Cheever started juggling pit crews. In the Kentucky race on August 10 a driver radioed the pits to say that he could see Scheckter’s rear tyre disintegrating. The Cheever pits got the message but never passed it on, and Scheckter hit the wall after setting the fastest lap of the race. “This isn’t like road racing. You’re doing more than 320kph and when you hit a wall at that speed you’re usually hurt. When another driver radios in to say you have a tyre problem you have to be alerted immediately.”
Then, last month Team Cheever went testing with two drivers. Scheckter wasn’t invited. “Eddie could take my testing, my performance parts and my crew away, but he couldn’t take away my speed or my drive to win.”
In the end Scheckter had had enough. “For the first time in my life I didn’t feel like going racing … I felt that people were out to knife me in any way they could.”
Why did he not tell the team of his decision, rather than just stay away as Cheever claimed? “He knew everything. We’d sent letters and faxes 48 hours beforehand.”
Cheever bought himself a racer and he got one. Sheckter got much media attention and proved he’s one of the quickest drivers in the United States, if not the world. Cheever scored his very first Indy racing pole position this year, in his 58th race. Scheckter scored three in just 12 starts. Scheckter completed 1972 laps out of the 2500 he started, and led the field for 443 of them. Cheever finished 2204 laps out of 2700, leading the way for 65. Scheckter led five of his 12 races, finished four and won one. Cheever led three times in 13 races, finished seven and scored a fifth place as his best result. Scheckter brought in $840 515 in prize money. Cheever won $783 215. “When I look back on this year, coming up with a win, so many quickest laps, the number of laps I’ve led, I think I’ve done a pretty good job for a rookie,” says Scheckter.
Perhaps, as Cheever said, he should have taken the time to read the instructions. He might have learned it’s easier to get a quick driver to stop crashing than it is to get a slow driver to go fast. Money makes the world go around, but in Indy racing it has to go around fast.
So what’s left for Scheckter?
“I think I’m going to be driving Indy cars next year. I’ve had a lot of great offers from everywhere … I’d like to be successful here in the US first and then when the right opportunity comes along in Formula One, I can do it. I’m only 21 and I’ve got a lot of years to go.”