What Will Tomas Do?

[TALONclaw]

Do you guys think Tomas Scheckter will stay in the IRL next year or move to CART or possibly F1? I think he should stay with the IRL because hes due for a winif he can stay off the wall, and if he stays he could be a championship contender next year.

 

[vat_man]

He won't go to F1 for a while (he's a bit smelly in Europe after the 'unpleasantness') plus there aren't any openers.

Gee, with all the nonsense with engine suppliers, are there actually any cars actually running in CART next year?

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by vat_man
He won't go to F1 for a while (he's a bit smelly in Europe after the 'unpleasantness') plus there aren't any openers.

Gee, with all the nonsense with engine suppliers, are there actually any cars actually running in CART next year?

Yes, I agree. It was particularly poor timing of him to be caught in that act.

So, based on the fact that he needs to build a racing career in the US, he may do better to stay where he is, and get some wins under his belt.

Alternatiely, he could move across to CART to get some experience on proper tracks.

And call me off-the-wall, but I think that CART will come back from the brink. Already, with its engine supply deal in place, it's beginning to go in the right direction.

 

[TALONclaw]

What happened in Europe?? I didnt follow his career before the IRL.

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by TALONclaw
What happened in Europe?? I didnt follow his career before the IRL.

He got caught gutter/kerb crawling (i.e. picking up prostitutes on the street in his car). I'm not making this up.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by vat_man


He got caught gutter/kerb crawling (i.e. picking up prostitutes on the street in his car). I'm not making this up.

I can vouch for that!

A huge mistake. I mean, surely he could have picked up some starry-eyed bint at a race-track.

What a muppet! :shakehead

 

[TALONclaw]

Interesting info vatman i did not know that.

 

[made in holland]

Originally posted by vat_man


He got caught gutter/kerb crawling (i.e. picking up prostitutes on the street in his car). I'm not making this up.

He also got a speeding ticket. Drove like 60 km/h too fast

 

[vat_man]

Well, given Jenson's speeding ticket a couple of years ago in a diesel 3 series I don't think that was quite the issue the guttercrawling conviction was - tough to sell to sponsors!

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by vat_man
Well, given Jenson's speeding ticket a couple of years ago in a diesel 3 series I don't think that was quite the issue the guttercrawling conviction was - tough to sell to sponsors!

Yes, especially since getting caught doing 150mph in your engine supplier's diesel car can only be good for them, in spite of them having to act po-faced and say they don't condone it. You could bet your house that BMW paid that fine!

 

[vat_man]

I see there's some talk Eddie Cheever's a bit sick of Tomas' antics (suggesting he seems to be incapable of learning - ouch!) and Tomas will probably be out shortly (if not already).

 

[GilesGuthrie]

I was reading that too. Some interesting comments made by Cheever.

 

[-Fred-]

well, Tomas won yesterday, so maybe Cheever will rethink the decision for a few weeks...

 

[TALONclaw]

I think Cheever lit a fire under his arse.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

From Autosport.com...

Scheckter skips Gateway
South African's IRL future placed in doubt

The starting lineup for the Gateway Indy 250 Indy Racing League event contains one major omission - Tomas Scheckter. The mercurial rookie, winner at Michigan and a frequent crasher elsewhere, informed the team he would not be racing this weekend. This was surprising news to the team, which arrived at Gateway fully intending to run three cars again for Eddie Cheever, Buddy Rice and Scheckter.

Team owner and driver Cheever said: "After not showing up for a scheduled technical briefing yesterday, we called and were informed by Tomas that he was not going to participate in the race this weekend. He did not offer any further details. This news was very shocking after the time and effort that both Red Bull Cheever Racing and TWR have put into preparing his car for this race, as we have done all season."

Other reports have suggested that Scheckter has resigned from the team, citing concerns about safety.

Cheever implied that further action would be forthcoming. "We have a contract with Tomas through 2003 which we fully intend to enforce. Although this is a surprise, it will not have a negative impact on our performance this weekend."

 

[vat_man]

I read a report somewhere that Tomas basically quit after the last race - apparently he called to come in for fresh tyres, and the team screwed around for three laps trying to get organised, and in the meantime Tomas had a crash on 'shredded tyres'. He was pretty angry about that, the report said, and basically quit on safety issues.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

I think that's a case of the driver and the team having a fight over who is the more annoyed with the other!!

 

[vat_man]

Well, I would certainly suggest that this and the 'unpleasantness' in the UK would have stamped Tomas as problematic - although Bobby Rahal seems to be a fan - I think Rahal mentioned he was after Scheckter for next year.