Chip Ganassi Racing team-mates Tomas Scheckter and Scott Dixon are in good form ahead of the 250-lap SunTrust Indy Challenge at the Richmond International Raceway this weekend.
Chip Ganassi Racing team-mates Tomas Scheckter and Scott Dixon are in good form ahead of the 250-lap SunTrust Indy Challenge at the Richmond International Raceway this weekend.
During last month’s open test in Richmond, Dixon was quickest and Scheckter was third fastest overall. Last year, the young Capetonian fought his way to a fourth-placed finish at Richmond after qualifying 18th on the grid and will rely on the vital experience he gained in that event.
But whereas driving errors cost Scheckter possible victories in his rookie season last year, the 22-year-old has been beset by bad luck in his second season. Despite leading 145 laps of the 200-tour Bombardier 500 in Texas on June 7, the South African’s chances of victory were dashed when his Team Target Panoz Toyota sparked a near-disastrous pit lane fire and crashed due to a front suspension failure.
A week later, at the Honda Indy 225 at Pikes Peak in Colorado, the Capetonian’s race was ruined when his entry to the pitlane was blocked by Felipe Giafone’s car. During Giafone’s pit stop, the refuelling hose on his car would not disengage. The Brazilian’s car crept forward out of his pit bay and blocked Scheckter as the South African was heading to his pit lane crew. As a result, Scheckter had to leave the pitlane and lost a lap to the leaders.
“If we can shake this string of bad luck, we’re going to start winning races soon. We’ve had dominant cars over the last few races and for one reason or another, we just haven’t had the finishes we need,” Scheckter said. “It is encouraging to know that Team Target is going to have a car that will run at the front each week and we’ve proven that by leading the most laps – we just need to lead the important one, the last one.
“The team has done an amazing job week in and week out and our luck will turn around. Like Scott (Dixon), we had a great car at the test down in Richmond. I think that we were third-fastest in the test session and that gives us a lot of confidence going into the race. We’re due for some breaks to go our way,” he added.
Scheckter currently heads the Indy Racing League’s list of laps led this season with 260. Dixon is second with 236. As a team, the two drivers have led 496 of the 1 225 laps (40,4 per cent) run this year.
