OCTOBER 18, 2002

Scheckter looks to Ganassi

Tomas Scheckter once seemed on a trajectory which was going to take him to Formula 1 but the young South African, son of the 1979 World Champion, went off the rails in 2001 and was dumped by Jaguar Racing, for which he was test driving at the time. Scheckter repaired to the Formula Nissan series in Spain and then this year headed to the United States where he made a big impact on the Indy Racing League with Red Bull Team Cheever. He led several races but won only one and had several big crashes. In the end he quit the team.

Scheckter turned up at the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis to see what F1 had to offer but has since turned his attention to getting another drive in America and has been testing for the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing IRL team in recent days, trying out the new Toyota IRL engine.

Scheckter says he sees his future in the IRL

"There's a lot of stuff for me to achieve here in America," he said, "and I think I'd like to do it in the IRL."