IndyCar Leadership’s As Existent As Bars On Mars

Combining the words “IndyCar” and “leadership” in the same sentence goes beyond oxymoronic – it blasts into “Total Recall” territory (the good one with Arnold, not the remake). Put another way, the likelihood of sound decisions coming out of 16th and Georgetown is roughly equivalent to the chances of getting some water to go with that bourbon on your next visit to the red planet.

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Derrick Walker still hasn’t been replaced as President of Competition months after his resignation, there’s no announced schedule for 2016 and the interminable six month off season has only just begun. The sport’s been hemorrhaging fans, forgetting its own past and merely managing to limp along. Mark Miles was supposed to be the savior; instead he’s proven to be a dud. Otherwise, things are going well – no disaster to see here.

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In fairness it’s not all doom and gloom, just largely. Positives include competitive racing most of the season, an uptick in viewership

Tomas Scheckter: IndyCar’s Orson Welles, Part 2

It had been a tumultuous  first half-season in IndyCar for Scheckter, especially  those chaotic days leading up to his epic victory in Michigan. Fired by Cheever – who didn’t last long as an owner – Scheckter eventually drove for nearly a dozen different IndyCar teams, sometimes several in a single season.  His career stalled as the shadow of his incredible initial triumph loomed largely, negatively affecting his fortunes thereafter.

Later in his career it became a scrum for funding, a tough grind like most drivers and even some Hollywood geniuses encounter sooner or later. As a result, the art suffered and starring appearances became fewer and further between. Unlike other legacy drivers Tomas’s father didn’t own an IndyCar team. Most of his former teams either no longer exist or have changed radically, as has the series itself.

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Scheckter had one more brilliant leading role in him, though. He returned to victory lane in 2005 for Panther Racing under the lights before a fairly packed house at Texas. His second win was Tomas’s The Third Man, an overlooked and underrated gem of a performance coming years after his first. This was back when there were three engines competing in the series and Danica raced as a rookie sensation, a golden age in IndyCars. Danica-mania raged nationwide and brought much needed though controversial attention to the series – or at least to one driver – as you may recall. 

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The Texas race immediately followed the late Dan Wheldon’s memorable first Indianapolis 500 win – the same 500 Danica briefly led. As a result, Danica-mania had reached pop-concert pre-teen scream pitch. She led several laps making history, but many forget about her earlier spin that collected both Scheckter and his Czech teammate Tomas Enge, ruining their respective races.  Danica suffered little damage and went on to finish fourth in her first 500, to the amazement of many.

Starting from pole in Texas and looking to regain the lost limelight, Tomas took the checkers after once again being forced to overcome numerous problems in the pits. For Tomas to win, it wouldn’t have been believable without  some theatrics. Fittingly it was another edge of your seat type of race, an exhilarating, enthralling show. It couldn’t quite match that thriller in the lower peninsular three years earlier, but then again what could? 

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For Tomas it was a needed shot of redemption, some box office success. An underdog, he was always someone you wanted to root for, to see succeed. On that night he did. “Thomas Scheckter has exercised the demons tonight” ESPN announcer Todd Harris declared as he beat Sam Hornish, Jr. to the line in an extremely close finish. Characteristically for Tomas, it was the first race the streaky South African had finished all year.

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In a post race interview on ESPN2, Panther principle John Barnes excitedly reacted to Tomas’s only win with his team.  “He’s a helluva driver. We’re gonna . . . party all night!” Danica ended up finishing 13th, well behind her media hype. Sound vaguely familiar? On stage in victory circle a humble Scheckter credited his team and Chevy power plant, saying “American Revolution, baby. . . . Thank them a lot.”

The Texas win came amidst the usual adversity, as Ed Carpenter ran over one of Tomas’s hoses on his first pit stop and he had to overcome some other slow  stops as well. Like Michigan, the pit crew’s poor supporting performance only served to make Tomas’s starring role shine brighter.  Tortoise-paced pit crews and rotten luck seemed to be defining traits of his career, but on that night he was able to overcome them both.

Losing a ton of track position again during his final stop at the high banked oval, the plot twist was exquisite. Scheckter had to contend with antagonists Hornish, Jr – a two time winner at Texas – and Castro-Neves in addition to the always tough Tony Kanaan. As if in flashback to his previous win Scheckter battled and speedily overtook them all to regain the lead of the race, holding onto it despite several contentious challenges right to the end credits.  

Photo from motorsport.com

The Texas win came in one of the sharpest paint schemes of all time – the platinum colored Pennzoil car – which positively popped under the lights. We wonder how many people missed the highly entertaining race on ESPN2 that Saturday night, when Thomas stormed into the lead for the final time during a side by side “30 at 30” break with less than fifteen laps to go. Clearly many critics weren’t pleased with the absence of a leading lady on stage, but the paying fans roared their approval.

Texas Motor Speedway was the final curtain call for Scheckter, as thereafter he bounced around from team to low budget team as often as some drivers change fireproof suits. He secured some funding on his own and spliced together programs here and there, but he never again got a shot with one of the big teams after Panther. The on screen results suffered.

His record on the grandest stage of them all was decent, earning co-rookie of the year honors in 2002 –  shortly before Cheever wanted him gone – and leading over a hundred and fifty laps at Indianapolis during  his career. However, he would also crash while leading the 500 and a couple of other times as well. Victory in the big one always eluded him as it has most others who’ve raced there. His best finish of fourth came in his second race in 2003 for Ganassi, with Tomas as always feeling he had something to prove. In over half a dozen more attempts he never equaled that sophomore showing.

We hope he’s doing well and wish more genius-level talent like Scheckter would come along to IndyCar. Tomas was always riveting and compelling to watch race, adding something special merely with his larger than life presence in the field. We miss him and his crazy-brave racing skills. Like the late great filmmaker Orson Welles, the world could use more talented, defiant, risk-taking characters like him.

Tomas Scheckter: IndyCar’s Orson Welles, Part 1

Son of 1979 F-1 champion Jody Scheckter and born the next year, Tomas was a meteoric and flawed IndyCar driver during his decade in the series from 2002 – 2011 and man, was he fun to watch. Fearless, exciting and reckless, Scheckter provided paying race fans with a high line, high intensity style of racing that came to define his Orson Welles-like career. When starting out upon the summit, where else is there to go but down?

You didn’t dare take your eyes off the South African during a race and never knew where he’d end up – at the front or in the wall. Outside the car he was fun loving and interesting, a magnetic personality with star power. Unfortunately, he had a high incidence of expensive crashes and also of irritating team owners, but he was always Tomas Scheckter the boy wonder.

Photo from trackforum.com

With two race wins (he ran out of fuel leading another in the final laps), four podium finishes and over half a dozen poles in just over a hundred races, he stood out more for his mad dashes to the front than for always finishing there. Tomas was a driver who “probably should have had … seven or eight wins by now in his career” according to ESPN announcer and former driver Scott Goodyear in 2005, when Tomas was only in his fourth year in the series.

His chops were always worth the price of admission, but for Scheckter the luck rarely broke his way. His winning percentage is higher than several current drivers in the series however, including Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal who both happen to drive for their fathers’ teams. Scheckter’s audaciousness and devil-may-care daring made him a joy to watch in every race despite the overall lack of results. We here at IRR miss Tomas’s unpredictable and edgy contributions to the series and can only lament that they don’t make blockbusters like him or Welles anymore.

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Tomas’s Citizen Kane and one of the great IndyCar stories ever was his first win at Michigan International Speedway as a rookie in 2002. In eye-catching style, Scheckter won an exceptionally entertaining race charging through the field to the front. It was his masterpiece –  among the finest two hours of viewing ever. The behind the scenes reality was even more incredible and truly stranger than fiction.

Reaching speeds over 220 mph, he won by only a few car lengths over brand new Red Bull teammate Buddy Rice, who had started second beside him on pole. On the surface that day Scheckter’s possibilities in IndyCar seemed limitless, as the upstart wunderkind out drove an impressive field – twice. Sadly for Tomas though, he’d never quite be able to top that first heroic role.

Just months into his initial campaign, the 21 year old South African already had clashed repeatedly with his mercurial team owner/driver Eddie Cheever, both of whom had their share of crashes that season. One incident that stands out had Tomas managing to put both himself and his boss into the wall while racing in his usual go for broke manner. Like Orson and his famous fights with studio heads and other giants, Tomas seemed to have a knack for drawing the ire of the most powerful of people.

Events had come to a head between the antagonists prior to that summer afternoon in Michigan by which time Cheever was already in the process of firing the young Scheckter, hence the last minute addition of Rice to the team. Turned out Eddie couldn’t even fire Tomas properly, so instead he was forced to run three cars in the Irish Hills. The entire team had to constantly cope with the boss’s highly improvisational approach.

Photo from speed-sportmagazine.com

To drive his rarely subtle point home further Cheever suddenly made dramatic changes before the race, giving Scheckter’s car and entire team away to newly signed Buddy Rice for his first IndyCar start. This forced Scheckter to use a backup car and worse still a cobbled together crew who’d been out of racing all year – a bunch of no-name actors, if you will.

Not surprisingly the slow, mistake-riddled pit stops during the Michigan 400 demonstrated the crew’s inexperience and cost Scheckter vital time. At one point he chided them over the radio, saying it was their “turn to get to work.” What the peevish Cheever accomplished instead of undermining his driver was making Scheckter’s first IndyCar victory that much more remarkable.

Photo from motorsport.com

Scheckter raced Rice and everyone else around him extremely hard and close during that unforgettable 400 miler. Cheever eventually crashed out with no help from Tomas, hitting the wall and causing a yellow. The caution came at the worst possible time for our leading man who had just completed his final stop of the race under green while the rest of the lead pack had yet to do so. His pit crew had been typically molasses-like and the rest of the leaders were able to pit under caution.

As a result he was shuffled to the rear of the field, but fortunately remained on the lead lap. Scheckter had led almost the entire race but now found himself in twelfth place with about thirty laps to go when the green flag flew. Scheckter dramatically passed eleven cars – including Rice driving his old car – within about ten laps to claim the win. The Hollywood ending was breathtaking and Tomas’s race against all odds – including his team owner and teammate – was one for the ages.

Photo from AP

Watching his Red Bull cars cross the finish line 1-2 from the pits, Cheever was the least pleased team owner whose team had just won a race imaginable. According to motorsport.com Scheckter said after the thrilling victory “I went out very aggressive and pushed every lap. Was on the floor from the beginning, gave no one any room. And I proved myself.” His summation of the race was frank, accurate and pure Tomas.