26 Facts About Tomas Scheckter

Tomas 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.

Tomas Scheckter had his first taste of a major championship as a teenager when he captured the South African Kart Championship in 1995.

Tomas Scheckter 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 Antonio Pizzonia and Takuma Sato.

Tomas Scheckter earned third in the championship with one victory and one pole.

In 1999, Tomas 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 Hakkinen, Rubens Barrichello, and David Coulthard.

Tomas 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, Antonio Pizzonia and Narain Karthikeyan.

Tomas Scheckter had time to race in the prestigious Marlboro Masters F3 race at Zandvoort where he took the third podium position.

Tomas Scheckter raced in the Open Telefonica by Nissan, finishing as championship runner-up.

Tomas Scheckter was signed to drive for Eddie Cheever's Red Bull Cheever Racing in the IndyCar Series for the 2002 season.

Tomas Scheckter was the Indianapolis 500 co-Rookie of the year after leading 85 laps of the race.

Tomas 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, Tomas Scheckter was announced as one of the drivers for A1 Team South Africa in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series.

Tomas Scheckter raced in the rounds at EuroSpeedway Lausitz and Estoril.

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

In 2007, Tomas Scheckter again raced for Vision Racing sponsored by Joost.

Tomas Scheckter ultimately finished 10th in points for the second season in a row with a best finish of fifth.

Tomas Scheckter failed to return any good results in the additional races despite qualifying well.

Tomas Scheckter did not return to the team in 2009, as it became a full-time team with 2008 Indy Lights champion Raphael Matos.

Tomas Scheckter was reported to be joining Beck Motorsports, now renamed Team 3G, starting at the 2009 Long Beach race, but the deal never materialized.

Tomas 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.

Tomas Scheckter had a great race, and was in the top for the majority of the race.

Tomas 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 10 laps and made contact with the wall that ended his day.

At Kentucky Tomas Scheckter struggled getting the car up to speed and finished 14th.

Tomas Scheckter is the son of 1979 Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter and the nephew of racer Ian Scheckter.

Tomas Scheckter has an older brother named Toby, and a younger brother Hugo, who often updates Tomas's fans through his Twitter page.

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