Early years

Scheckter was born in Monte Carlo to 1979 Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter and his first wife Pamela. Scheckter started racing karts in South Africa at the age of 11 and it did not take long for the young driver to reach the podium. He had his first taste of a major championship as a teenager when he captured the South African Kart Championship in 1995. In 1996 he ventured on to the main circuit in the South African Formula Vee series and soon after he was in the South African Formula Ford Series where he posted two wins.

He had proven his speed in South African motorsports and was then off to Europe the following year where he entered the British Formula Vauxhall Junior series where he raced against the likes of Antônio Pizzonia and Takuma Sato. Scheckter earned third in the championship with one victory and one pole. He was also named series Rookie of the Year.

In 1999, Scheckter won the Formula Opel Euroseries championship with a record eight victories and eight poles, and in the process broke all the winning records previously set by Mika Häkkinen, Rubens Barrichello, and David Coulthard. That success landed him a drive that same year in the last two races of the Formula Nissan championship which Fernando Alonso had dominated that whole season. Even though Scheckter was with a new team for this brief stint in Formula Nissan, he captured a win, two poles and a second-place position.

Scheckter moved on to the Formula 3 Series in 2000, and in his rookie year, he was the runner-up in the British Formula 3 Championship with two victories and two pole positions, while contending again with drivers such as Takuma Sato, Antônio Pizzonia and Narain Karthikeyan. He also had time to race in the prestigious Marlboro Masters F3 race at Zandvoort where he took the third podium position. To complete his year, he competed in the final four races of the FIA Formula 3000 Championship, finishing second at Hockenheim behind future IRL teammate Tomáš Enge. He also raced in the Open Telefónica by Nissan, finishing as championship runner-up.

Scheckter was signed as a test/reserve driver by Jaguar for the 2001 Formula One season, but was soon let go after being found "curb crawling."

IndyCar Series

Scheckter was signed to drive for Eddie Cheever's Red Bull Cheever Racing in the IndyCar Series for the 2002 season. He was the Indianapolis 500 co-Rookie of the year (with 4th placed Alex Barron) after leading 85 laps of the race. However, Cheever soon grew tired of Scheckter's frequent crashes, and looked to replace him with Buddy Rice. At Michigan International Speedway, Cheever was forced to race Scheckter due to contractual obligations, but gave Rice the best equipment and crew. In a memorable race, Scheckter beat Rice by inches for his first IRL win, while team owner Cheever crashed out. However, he was soon gone from Cheever Racing.

In 2003 he moved to Target Ganassi Racing with mixed results, often being criticized for his inconsistency and frequency of crashing, finishing well behind title winning teammate Scott Dixon.

In 2004 he moved to Panther Racing to replace double champion Sam Hornish, Jr.. In 2004 and 2005 Scheckter and Panther were the dominant Chevrolet powered team, greatly outpacing other teams powered by what many considered the weakest engine in the series. Scheckter broke through a horrendous string of bad luck, defeating Hornish to win the Bombardier Learjet 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in June 2005 for his second career victory.

In mid-2005, Scheckter was announced as one of the drivers for A1 Team South Africa in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series. He raced in the rounds at EuroSpeedway Lausitz and Estoril.

In 2006, Scheckter drove for Tony George and Patrick Dempsey's Vision Racing alongside teammate Ed Carpenter and finished 10th in points.

In 2007 Scheckter again raced for Vision Racing sponsored by Joost. The South African was one of the few drivers that year to challenge the Team Penske, Andretti Green Racing and Target Chip Ganassi Racing drivers on a regular basis during races, on occasion leading the race. He ultimately finished 10th in points for the second season in a row with a best finish of 5th.

For the 2008 season, Scheckter was scheduled to race for Luczo Dragon Racing in 3 races: Kansas, Indianapolis and Infineon. Despite not finishing at Kansas or Indy, Scheckter's runs gave the team additional race time at Texas, Detroit, and Chicagoland. Scheckter failed to return any good results in the additional races despite qualifying well. He did not return to the team in 2009, as it became a full-time team with 2008 Indy Lights champion Raphael Matos. Scheckter was reported to be joining Beck Motorsports, now renamed Team 3G, starting at the 2009 Long Beach race, but the deal never materialized. Scheckter personally secured sponsorship from MonaVie which he shopped to a number of teams, ultimately signing with Dale Coyne Racing for a second week program. He qualified 26th and finished 12th. Later in the 2009 season he returned with the MonaVie sponsorship with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing sharing the #23 car with Milka Duno, who brought her own sponsorship, as well as driving a third car, the #43, in select races.

In 2010 Scheckter once again brought Mona-Vie to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing to drive the #23 car in the Indianapolis 500. Scheckter had a great race, and was in the top for the majority of the race. In the last 20 laps a fuel mileage problem forced Scheckter to conserve fuel and he dropped back to finish 12th. Scheckter's teammate Mike Conway suffered a leg injury in a terrible crash at the Indianapolis 500 and Scheckter was hired to fill in for Conway at Texas and Iowa finished 15th and 19th at each. Later in the year he was hired to drive for Conquest Racing at Chicago and Kentucky. Scheckter finished 28th at Chicago, but after having a surprisingly quick time in practice and qualifying he was accidentally hit from behind by Alex Lloyd in the first ten laps and made contact with the wall that ended his day. At Kentucky Scheckter struggled getting the car up to speed and finished 14th.

For 2011 Scheckter joined KV-SH Racing and drive the #07 Team Redline Extreme car in the Indianapolis 500. For the season's final race in Las Vegas, Scheckter drove the #57 car for Sarah Fisher Racing with Angie's List as the primary sponsor, however this race was red flagged due to a multicar pile up early in the race.

Personal

He is the son of 1979 Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter and the nephew of racer Ian Scheckter. He also has an older brother named Toby, and a younger brother Hugo, who often updates Tomas's fans through his Twitter page.

Motorsports career results

Complete Euro Open by Nissan results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
1999	Vergani Racing	ALB 1	ALB 2	JER 1	JER 2	JAR 1	JAR 2	MNZ 1	MNZ 2	JAR 1	JAR 2	DON 1	DON 2	BAR 1	BAR 2	VAL 1	VAL 2	12th	35
2001	Vergani Racing	JAR 1	JAR 2	EST 1	EST 2	ALB 1	ALB 2	VAL 1	VAL 2	MNZ 1	MNZ 2	MAG 1	MAG 2	BAR 1	BAR 2	VAL 1	VAL 2	2nd	185

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2000	MySap.com	IMO	SIL	CAT	NÜR	MON	MAG	A1R	HOC	HUN	SPA			13th	6
2001	European Minardi F3000	INT	IMO	CAT	A1R	MON	NÜR	MAG	SIL	HOC	HUN	SPA	MNZ	NC	0

Complete IndyCar Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2002	Team Cheever	Dallara	Infiniti	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2					14th	210
2003	Chip Ganassi Racing	G-Force	Toyota	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	STL	KTY	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2				7th	356
2004	Panther Racing	Dallara	Chevrolet	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2				19th	230
2005	Panther Racing	Dallara	Chevrolet	HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON			9th	390
2006	Vision Racing	Dallara	Honda	HMS	STP	MOT	INDY	WGL	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	SNM	CHI						10th	298
2007	Vision Racing	Dallara	Honda	HMS	STP	MOT	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	MIS	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI			10th	357
2008	Luczo Dragon Racing	Dallara	Honda	HMS	STP	MOT1	LBH1	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	31st	66
2009	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara	Honda	STP	LBH	KAN	INDY																20th	195
	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing							MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM	CHI	MOT	HMS
2010	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	Honda	SAO	STP	ALA	LBH	KAN	INDY	TXS	IOW	WGL	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM							29th	89
	Conquest Racing																CHI	KTY	MOT	HMS
2011	SH Racing KV Racing Technology	Dallara	Honda	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	TXS	TX2	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO								32nd	52
	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing															NHM	SNM
	SH Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing																	BAL	MOT	KTY
	Sarah Fisher Racing																				LVS

1 Run on same day.

2 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
10	8	117	8	2	4	38	0	0

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team	Notes
2002	Dallara	Infiniti	10	26	Team Cheever	Led most laps, crashed in Turn 4
2003	G-Force	Toyota	12	4	Chip Ganassi Racing	Led the most laps
2004	Dallara	Chevrolet	10	18	Panther Racing	Running
2005	Dallara	Chevrolet	11	20	Panther Racing	Accident
2006	Dallara	Honda	11	27	Vision Racing	Accident
2007	Dallara	Honda	10	7	Vision Racing	Running
2008	Dallara	Honda	11	24	Luczo Dragon Racing	Mechanical failure
2009	Dallara	Honda	26	12	Dale Coyne Racing	Running
2010	Dallara	Honda	20	15	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Led 5 laps
2011	Dallara	Honda	21	8	SH Racing/KVRT	Running

Scheckter started on the fourth row of the Indy 500 his first seven races until 2009, when he qualified 26th.

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005-06	A1 Team South Africa	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	GER SPR	GER FEA	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	USA SPR	USA FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	17th	20

[ Source: Wikipedia ]